Teamwork is essential to winning in athletics but it matters even more for team academic success.
It took every Grand Canyon softball player's contribution – and an established culture – for the Lopes to claim the best team GPA in Division I softball for the second consecutive year.
The Lopes' 2018-19 team GPA of 3.76 ranked first among 295 Division I softball programs. The achievement is no shock for a principled program that has claimed the highest Division I GPA in three of the past four years and recorded the top Division II team GPA four times under 17th-year Lopes head coach Ann Pierson.
"When I recruit them, it's the expectation that this is how we do things," Pierson said. "We're going head to head with Ivy League schools and getting those kids in here because they see we truly care about their academic success."
That academic emphasis does not come at the expense of athletic accomplishment. It has contributed to winning traits of dedication, fortitude and focus, which translated to GCU posting more than 30 wins in each of the past four seasons.
Lopes coaches and players share a common passion for softball but Pierson directs each student-athlete's attention to their future career as much as their next game.
    Jordon Keeton
"It's built into the culture of our team," Lopes senior Jordon Keeton said. "We all hold each other to such high expectations, not only on the field but off the field. We don't only want to be great athletes. We want to be great student-athletes. We understand softball is a major priority right now but we need to look at the bigger picture after college. Our coaches have engrained into our brains that they want us to be successful after college."
The same discipline that the team shows to attend weight-room workouts at dawn comes with its approach to schoolwork, which can be challenging with in-season demands and travel. It helps that Pierson sets up a schedule that minimizes missed classroom time, like when GCU played four tournaments at home last season.
The emphasis is clear before players arrive at GCU with Pierson checking in with high school signees about grade point averages more than their batting averages.
The motivation to thrive academically helps players in every situation. It carried Lopes junior Kaileigh Holland through three majors in three years to find her fit with Criminal Justice.
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    Kayleigh Holland
"We definitely are high achievers and we go out of our way to make sure our grades are high as they can be," Holland said. "We're held to high standards and we have high expectations for ourselves. If we fall behind, it is never a long-term thing because we stay on top of our work. We are coached to not only play our best on the field but we are coached to do our best in the classrooms."
Twenty of GCU's players earned Easton/National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Scholar-Athlete status for last season.
Pierson credits the university infrastructure for "pulling the rope in the same direction."
"We're grateful for the support from our administration, (Senior Associate Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Development) Jason Linders, the professors," Pierson said. "(Softball academic coordinator) Kaeman Mitchell goes above and beyond to support these kids in academics and life. They're big pieces that we need for the kids to create good habits and understand why we're creating them."
The same pride that Pierson feels in the year-end GPA comes when players arrive at GCU Softball Stadium and tell her about an A on an exam or project before anything about softball.
There is not a collegiate softball staff in the nation that does not tell recruits about its priority on academics but there is no disputing the results that back GCU's recruiting pledge.
"It's pushed me to get really good grades because I don't want to let my team down and I don't want to let my coach down," said Keeton, a Business Management major. "I sure don't want to be the one kid on the team bringing our team GPA down or having to go talk to Ann. She makes it known that she cares and that she sees us working hard on our grades."
 Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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