Dear Owls Fan,

Temple student-athletes excel in their respective sports, but their competitive spirit isn't limited to the playing field.

This academic year, more than 550 Temple student-athletes are battling it out to see which team wins the coveted Owl Trophy. Presented to the team with the highest grade-point average at the end of the year, the Owl Trophy is a symbol of great pride among our sport programs.

The men’s gymnastics team is the reigning champion with an impressive 3.24 GPA. Their goal this year is simple: REPEAT. However, 21 other programs had something to say about that this past fall:

277 student-athletes earned a semester GPA of 3.0 or higher
12 student-athletes achieved perfect 4.0 GPAs
16 teams improved their cumulative team GPA from spring 2009 to fall 2009
16 teams improved their fall semester GPA from 2008 to 2009
14 teams maintained a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher -- an all-time high!
3 student-athletes graduated in January in just three and a half years

So watch out men’s gymnastics – the message is clear. This year’s 2009-10 Owl Trophy is up for grabs!

Commitment to Community Service
Our coaches place a high value on their players' being well-rounded students and athletes. To this end, Temple student-athletes engage in various team and departmentwide community service events to help give back to the local community. It is amazing that with their demanding schedules, our players still achieve stellar GPAs and perform multiple hours of community service.

This year, our student-athletes across all sports came together to raise money for UNICEF. Each team picked up collection boxes provided by the athletics department and were encouraged to go out into the community to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. We had fantastic participation and our athletic department raised $1,600! Just a $45 donation provides school supplies for 20 children, meaning that our student-athletes helped to provide school supplies to 700 children.

While preparing for finals in December, our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (S.A.A.C.) ran their third annual Toy & Clothing Drive to benefit Women Against Abuse, a local women’s and children's shelter. Many teams collected clothing and toys from the list provided by the shelter. All donations were given unwrapped, allowing the mothers to shop at the shelter for the items that were best for their children.

Looking Ahead to the OWL CUP
We look forward to an exciting spring semester where our student-athletes will continue to excel both in and out of the classroom. Each team is competing against each other for the OWL CUP, given to the team that exemplifies and embraces the initiatives of the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills program. The award is “the total package”- student-athletes supporting other student-athletes, excelling in and out of the classroom, attending various CHAMPS/Life Skills workshops (career/personal development), volunteer work, motivating each other and creating pride throughout Temple’s campus. The OWL CUP Champions will be crowned at our annual Breakfast of Champions, to be held April 28.

We are excited to see what the future will bring for the spring semester, and we look forward to graduation in May. We also look forward to seeing our student-athletes working on more community service projects, especially our annual Partnership Field Day in April and raising money for Haitian relief efforts.

As always, we are thankful for the broad participation of our alumni, fans and friends, who support our successful programs and hard-working student-athletes. With your continued loyalty, we shall achieve.

Go Owls!