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Truckee track teams honored for academics

Sylas Wright
Sierra Sun

Not that the awards are anything new to Truckee High athletes, but they’re impressive nonetheless.

Both Wolverine track teams ” boys and girls ” earned Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) Academic State Champion honors for posting the highest collective GPAs in the 3A division.

The girls edged all 3A track programs in the state with a 3.71 GPA while the boys pulled off the feat with a 3.56, said Bob Shaffer, Truckee’s head track coach and athletic director.



“People portray athletes as not very smart, and I tell them that in this day and age, with as much strategy and information as kids have to absorb, they have to be,” Shaffer said.

“You can’t be all bronze and no brains, so to speak. You have to have both. Our kids have shown over and over again that they do, and that’s why they’re successful.”



Accepting such awards has become a common occurance for Wolverine coaches.

Most recently, Truckee’s boys and girls soccer teams, as well as the football squad coached by Shaffer, earned the Academic State Championship award this past fall.

Truckee’s boys track and boys tennis teams won last school year, as did both soccer teams.

“The kids here are amazing,” Jay Cunningham, Truckee’s principal, told the Sun in November after learning that the football and soccer teams netted the honors. “Our athletes really put high priority on academics, and I’m very pleased with that.

“I think that our athletes are held to a higher degree of performance, and they deliver,” the principal continued. “It displays the commitment and dedication you have to have to be an athlete.”

The Wolverines have collected so many of the awards over the years ” presented in the form of plaques ” the old gym could not house them all, Shaffer said. That is to change, however, as the awards are set to go in display cases in the new gym.


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