Honors: Former Wildcat receives national football honors, academic recognition

Former Oak Ridge Wildcat James Normand received national honors when he was named to a football academic all-star team earlier this year, and he was also among the scholar-athletes who helped the football team at Tennessee Tech record its second-highest GPA last semester.

Normand is a graduate offensive lineman for the Golden Eagles in Cookeville. In January, he and junior running back Stephen Bush were selected to the 16th annual Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association (FCS ADA) Academic All-Star Team.

The two Golden Eagle standouts were included on the 43-player team that was chosen by a panel from among 90 nominees, Rob Schabert, TTU Golden Eagles assistant athletic director for sports information, said in early January. The announcement was made at the site of the FCS Championship game.

Normand wrapped up his four-year playing career by starting in 36 consecutive games scattered between three different positions. Primarily an offensive guard, he also spent snaps at tackle and center while providing leadership to the offensive line.

Bush, a junior from Cookeville, boasts a 3.85 GPA while Normand, who hails from Oak Ridge, graduated in December with a 3.46 GPA and is currently enrolled in graduate school.

The two were among only six players from the Ohio Valley Conference named to the team, Schabert said.

In a separate story in December, Schabert said Tennessee Tech student-athletes posted their highest combined GPA in school history during the fall semester, with four teams—men’s basketball, soccer, women’s golf and men’s golf—each registering the highest semester GPA in the history of their sports.

The football team had a 2.834 team GPA, second in program history only to the team’s all-time high of 2.899 earned during last spring, Schabert said.

See the stories here and here. Images courtesy of TTU Golden Eagles.