Will Lyons, Academic All Star

Got some great news today regarding the academic and athletic prowess of my cousin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute basketball star Will Lyons:

Babson Park, MA --- Three WPI men's basketball student-athletes have been named to the 2008-09 NEWMAC Men's Basketball All-Academic team.

The Engineers had the most student-athletes selected for the All-Academic team. Ben Etten (Hollis, NH), Will Lyons (Wilbraham, MA) and Jeffrey Robinson (Granby, CT) were selected to the team. It was the first All-Academic selection for each player.

Honorees must have met the following criteria: earned a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 scale or 4.35/5.0 scale after the 2007 fall semester, achieved second year academic status at her institution, and been a member of the varsity team for the entire season. (link)

Well that's settled. I can't shoot and rebound like Will, a 6'4" senior forward, and now I realize that I don't match his classroom stats either.


The Swingman

It bears mentioning that this comes as a bittersweet reward for Will, as he earned this accomplishment on one leg. His hoops career met an untimely end after suffering a ligament tear in his knee earlier in the season.

Geeze, after having one cousin on Who Wants to be a Millionaire last week, and now this, I'm starting to develop a complex. I can't imagine what's next for the Prochilo clan. Maybe I'll try out for Jeopardy or something. Oh, wait, we already have someone in the family that's done that.

WPI enters the NCAA DIII tournament with a first-round matchup against Husson (Bangor, Maine) on Friday at 6 pm at WPI's Harrington Auditorium. An interesting sidenote, the second game of the doubleheader pits UMass Dartmouth against Baruch, setting up a possible second round matchup of WPI and my father's alma mater...