Blair ice hockey team receives academic honor

Please note: The Blair ice hockey team is not affiliated with Montgomery Blair High School or Montgomery County Public Schools.

The Blair ice hockey team received the high-school academic team championship award for having the highest team GPA in Maryland. The award was presented on March 15 at the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League (MSHL)'s academic all-star game.

Two Blair students, juniors Nick Falgout and Brad Gee participated in the all-star game at Laurel Ice Gardens with about 60 other players from area high schools such as Whitman, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, Springbrook, Blake and Magruder. Falgout and Gee both received above a 3.8 weighted GPA for the semester.

Students with the highest GPAs from each position were chosen to play on the academic all-star teams.

The Blair hockey team's cumulative GPA was 3.6 on a weighted 4.0 scale, according to Barry Falgout, the team manager. He noted that the award was unexpected due to the fact that several schools had more players than Blair in the academic all-star game. However, according to Falgout, many teams did not submit report cards for "all of the players on the roster" and were therefore ineligible for the honor.

MSHL organizers choose players for each position with the highest GPA's for the academic all-star game. To be nominated, athletes are required to have a 3.25 GPA or higher, according to mshl.org.

Several other Blair ice hockey team members received honorable mention awards for meeting the requirements of the academic all-star game, but were not chosen to play.

The hockey team's record was 0-10-0 for the 2003-2004 season.