Howard and Schmit Earn Scholar-Athlete of the Month Honors

INDIANAPOLIS – Butler’s Matt Howard is the Male Scholar-Athlete for the second consecutive month and UIC’s Coryn Schmit is the Women’s Scholar-Athlete for the month of March.

Howard, a senior from Connersville, Ind., earned his third scholar-athlete of the month award this academic year while helping the Bulldogs to back-to-back NCAA Men’s Basketball championship game appearances. He was named the most valuable player at the 2011 Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship and became the first men’s basketball player in League history to earn All-Tournament recognition for four consecutive years. Howard was also named the Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year and also was named to the All-Tournament Team at the NCAA Southeast Regional.

A finance major, Howard holds a 3.77 cumulative Grade-Point Average. He was awarded the NCAA Elite 88 Award, given to the competing athlete with the highest GPA at the Final-Four for the second consecutive year as well as being honored as the 2010-11 Academic All-American of the Year. Howard became the first Butler athlete to earn Academic All-America recognition for three consecutive years and is a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District V selection.

Schmit, a sophomore from Hawthorn Woods, Ill., earned her first scholar-athlete of the month award. She is a member of the Flames softball team where she led the team in home runs (3), runs-batted-in (8) and doubles (2) in the month of March. Playing in all 13 games, she had a .364 batting average.

A movement sciences major, Schmit is en route to being the female student-athlete of the year with a perfect GPA (4.0) through three semesters at UIC. She was also named to the 2010 Fall Horizon League Honor Roll.

The Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Month recognizes outstanding academic and athletic achievements. To be eligible for the honor, the student-athlete must maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.20 or better (on a 4.00 scale), have completed at least one year at the member institution, passed 24 semester or 36 quarter hours and perform well during the month’s competition. Winners are selected by the League’s faculty athletics representatives, from nominations provided by sports information directors.