Loretto, PA -- The Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association announced Wednesday that the Saint Francis University Football team will be honored at the end of June for posting the greatest single year APR improvement in the Northeast Conference.

“I am very proud of this team for continuing to define what it means to be a student-athlete,” head football coach Chris Villarrial said. “Being apart of Saint Francis is about a commitment on the field, in the classroom and in the community and this honor highlights the continued growth of this team.”

The Red Flash will receive the award June 25 at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) third annual APR awards ceremony in Dallas, which is a part of NACDA's annual luncheon. The NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a metric that awards points for academic eligibility, graduation and retention. Eligibility is important as it measures a student's progress toward a degree at regular intervals.

The Saint Francis football team owns a proud academic tradition and boasts six ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-America selections. This past season SFU football placed John Kelly (Frederick, Md./Tuscarora) and Jeff Wasilewski (Ebensburg, Pa. / Central Cambria) on the Academic All-District squad and with both returning in 2012 they should both be excellent Academic All-America candidates. The Red Flash tied with Robert Morris for the most football selections to the Northeast Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll with 34. To make the honor roll a student-athlete needs to hold a 3.20 grade point average or better. SFU also boasted seven Fall Commissioner's honor roll selections, in order to make the Commissioner's honor roll a student-athlete needed to hold a 3.75 gpa or higher.