Cooper Named First Team CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-American

From Sports Information Director, June 7, 2016 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College senior ice hockey player Erik Cooper closed out a banner 2015-16 school year with one more honor.

Cooper, who captained the Green Knights to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Division III Frozen Four, has been named a first-team CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-America selection.

Cooper, an Anchorage, Alaska, native, owns a 3.73 grade point average in accounting. Cooper, a first-team All-America selection and the 2016 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Player of the Year, finished with 13 goals and 23 assists for 36 points in 31 games. Cooper, who scored in a school-record 19 consecutive games this season, helped the Green Knights finish 25-4-2 this past season. He was also a finalist for the 2016 Sid Watson Award, given to the national player of the year.

Cooper was a member of the St. Norbert Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was a team captain his junior and senior years. An eight-time Dean's List student, Cooper was also a three-time Academic All-NCHA honoree.

Cooper's honor is the seventh Academic All-America mention for St. Norbert men's hockey and is the program's first first-team selection. Rob Smillie was a second-team selection in 1999, followed by Marc Belanger's second-team accolade in 2008. Nick Tabisz was a second-team honoree in 2010 and 2011. Johan Ryd was a second-team choice in 2012, while Brandon Hoogenboom was a third-team selection in 2014.

The at-large team encompasses student-athletes from the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, men's volleyball, women's beach volleyball, water polo and wrestling.

Since the inception of the CoSIDA Academic All-America program in 1952, 50 St. Norbert College student-athletes have been selected for 66 awards.

To be eligible for national or regional selection, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.0, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution and be nominated by his sports information director. The Academic All-America team is selected after All-District teams are picked from eight geographic regions nationally.