SOU’s Holmes gets prestigious Academic All-America recognition

Southern Oregon University senior Tristen Holmes has been named to the NAIA’s Google Cloud Academic All-America second team for men’s basketball – one of just 13 student-athletes in SOU history to receive Academic All-America honors.

Holmes is among 10 student-athletes nationwide to be picked to the NAIA first and second teams by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The Academic All-America selection was the second recognition this week of Holmes’ academic accomplishments – he is one of four student-athletes from SOU’s winter sports teams who were named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes on Tuesday. Holmes, an interdisciplinary studies/pre-dentistry major, and business administration major Tate Hoffman were recognized from the men’s basketball team. Men’s wrestler C.J. McKinnis, a business administration major, and women’s basketball player Delaney Sparling, a health and physical education major, also received the Daktronics honor.

Student-athletes must be juniors or seniors, have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 and be enrolled at their current institution of at least one full year to be eligible the Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete distinction. SOU’s fall sports teams produced 23 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes.

The Google Cloud Academic All-America program recognizes student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom, and is considered the most prestigious of academic honors for college athletes.

A committee of the College Sports Information Directors of America selects honorees from various sports at the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA levels. In 2017-18, the most recent full academic year, a total of 19,146 student-athletes were nominated across all sports and 1,497 were recognized as Google Cloud Academic All-America first- or second-team members.

Holmes, a point guard for the SOU men’s basketball team, is a two-time All-Cascade Conference performer and North Medford product. He is a McNair Scholar, has a cumulative GPA of 3.84 and has been accepted to attend Oregon Health & Science University in Portland next fall.

He averaged 16.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists this season. He was the only player during the Cascade Conference regular season to rank among the top 15 in all three of those statistical categories.

Holmes made 98 career starts and finished his SOU basketball career with 1,412 points, 577 rebounds and 453 assists – the first player in school history with more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists. He finished at No. 3 in assists and No. 12 in scoring in the basketball program’s record book.

He and the Raiders had a 21-11 record this season, falling in the Cascade Conference tournament championship game at College of Idaho. In his four-year SOU career, his teams totaled 83 victories.

This story is expanded from an earlier version at souraiders.com