UVU Roundup: Wolverines garner WAC Academic Excellence Award
Abram Iman, Utah Valley Athletics
Utah Valley guard Kylee Mabry (1) rises to shoot over Weber State's Dakota Nap (5) at the Dee Events Center in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024.ARLINGTON, Texas – For the fifth straight academic year, Utah Valley University claimed at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Academic Excellence Award as the outright winner of the 2024-25 honor. The award recognizes exemplary performance in the classroom by conference members during a given academic year.
The award is determined by a point system and presented to the institution(s) that performs the best in the following areas at the end of an academic year: the average grade-point average (GPA) for each undergraduate student-athlete, the average GPA of each undergraduate student body compared to the average GPA of an institution’s student-athletes and the most recent two-year average of institutional Academic Progress Rate scores.
Utah Valley earned a fifth consecutive academic excellence award after boasting a cumulative 3.52 department GPA across 16 varsity sports. Utah Valley student-athletes registered a GPA that was 0.34 points above the university’s overall undergraduate average. The Wolverines have posted an average institutional APR of 990.5 over the past two recorded academic years, including a score of 992 in 2022-23.
WAC Academic Excellence Award Winners
2024-25 – Utah Valley
2023-24 – Utah Valley
2022-23 – Abilene Christian, Utah Valley
2021-22 – Utah Valley
2020-21 – Seattle U, Utah Valley
2019-20 – Seattle U
2018-19 – Grand Canyon
2017-18 – Grand Canyon
2016-17 – Kansas City
Softball adds assistant coach
Utah Valley softball head coach Cody Thomson has announced the hiring of former BYU standout and Utah Tech assistant Marissa Chavez to his coaching staff.
“I’m excited to add coach Marissa Chavez to my coaching staff,” said Thomson. “She’s going to bring a wealth of knowledge in the infield and as a hitting coach. She is also going to bring great energy and culture to the locker room.”
Chavez spent the last two seasons in St. George as an assistant coach with the Trailblazers. Prior to Utah Tech, Chavez began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at D-III Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham in New Jersey during the 2023 season.
In 2025, Chavez helped coach a potent Trailblazer lineup that had eight players hit .300 or better — including second team All-WAC selection LB Kahahawai-Kekona — and averaged 5.16 runs per game, the third-best in the WAC.
Chavez returns to Utah County after a highly successful collegiate playing career just up the road at BYU. Chavez was a three-time All-WCC selection — twice as first team and once as second team — and appeared in 162 games over her five-year playing career. As a Cougar, Chavez posted a career .306 batting average with 12 home runs, 24 doubles, and 65 RBIs.
A native of Covina, Calif., Chavez graduated from BYU in 2022 with a Bachelors degree in Public Health, and received Masters degrees in Public Administration and Public Health from Fairleigh Dickinson earlier this year.
