Monday, February 6, 2006
NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete Awards Announced

FPU trio earns NAIA honors

Three members of FPU's Golden State Athletic Conference and NAIA Region 2 champion volleyball team have more hardware for the trophy shelf.

Gera Bahr, Shailey Jones and Janelle Jackson have been named to the 2005-06 Volleyball NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete team.

Bahr, a senior from Clovis, is a liberal studies major with and emphasis in elementary education. Jones, a senior kinesiology major, and Jackson a junior business administration major, are both from Kingsburg.

It is the second award for Bahr and Jones and the first for Jackson.

All three were members of the 2003 FPU team the that won the NAIA National Championship

In the past four season Bahr and Jones have helped the Sunbirds to four GSAC and three NAIA Region 2 championship banners while piling up 157 wins against only eight defeats. The amazing run includes a 78-2 GSAC mark.

"We have been blessed with some wonderful student-athletes over the years," said FPU coach Dennis Janzen. "Janelle, Shailey and Gera are three of them. They make it easy to be a coach. They possess great athletic skills, emotional and spiritual maturity and have performed in the classroom. I am so very pleased to have had the opportunity to coach them."

The NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete distinction is available only to juniors and seniors who have a minimum 3.50 grade-point average (on a 4.00 scale) and made a significant contribution to their team's success.

Fresno Pacific University offers undergraduate and graduate programs that stress solid academic preparation and a strong ethical foundation. Each year more than 2,000 traditional and adult students attend classes on the 42-acre main campus in southeast Fresno or centers in Visalia and Bakersfield. The university also reaches 12,000 students across the nation and around the world through professional development studies programs. The only four-year Christian university in the Central Valley, FPU is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and ranked in the top quarter among Western universities master's category by U.S. News & World Report.