LSU student-athletes are excelling in the classroom as well as in their respective sports.LSU had 27 athletes placed on the 2009-10 Southeastern Conference Winter Academic Honor Roll. A total of 392 athletes made the list, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive announced in April.The swimming and diving teams had 20 members named to the honor roll. The gymnastics team had three honorees, followed by the men’s and women’s basketball teams with two members each.The SEC considered athlete’s grades from the spring, summer and fall semesters of 2009 to determine who made the honor roll.To make the honor roll, an athlete must have had a GPA of 3.00 or higher for the previous academic year, or a cumulative GPA of more than 3.00.To be eligible, an athlete must be on scholarship or have received an award such as a letter. Non-scholarship athletes are eligible if they have been on the varsity team for at least two seasons.Junior swimmer Jane Trepp made the list for the third time in her career, while senior basketball player Alex Farrer received the honor for a fourth time.LSU swimming coach David Geyer said good academics are important in all sports, but especially in smaller sports that don’t have professional leagues.”The academic side is very important,” Geyer said. “After four years, specifically with our sport, there’s no professional swimming, so the real world comes real quick once they graduate.”If athletes don’t have an academic background to fall back on, they aren’t prepared the way they need to be for life after college, Geyer said.LSU provides all its athletes access to the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes. The center’s Web site says every athletic team is required to fulfill study hall requirements inside the building. Athletes are checked on periodically by the Cox Center staff to see if they are fulfilling their study hours. An athlete must be physically inside the building and actively engaged in studying to earn their hours for the week.”It’s setting them up to be successful,” Geyer said of the Cox Center. “And that’s the great thing about the Academic Center. All the resources are there for them to take advantage of and be successful in the classroom.”Geyer said the swimming and diving coaches also emphasize learning time management skills.”Just like any other sport, the time commitment of being a student-athlete … from the time management perspective of that, your free time is really minimal,” Geyer said. “They know that they need to get their work done and move on if they want to be able to train and rest and do whatever they need to do.”—-Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected].