Pereira Earns Bucs Baseball's First CSC Academic All-American Award
Florida SouthWestern’s Nik Pereira made school history on Wednesday, becoming the first male student-athlete to be named a CSC 1st Team Academic All-American.
GREENVILLE, Ind.- Florida SouthWestern's Nik Pereira made school history on Wednesday, becoming the first male student-athlete to be named a CSC 1st Team Academic All-American.
Pereira shined both on the field and in the classroom during his three years with the Bucs.
As a sophomore this season he led FSW to their first Citrus Conference and FCSAA Championships while making their first trip to the Juco World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. Pereira was a 1st Team All-Citrus Conference and 1st Team All-FCSAA selection behind the plate, hitting .339 with 12 doubles, 11 home runs, and 45 RBIs for the Bucs. He was a workhorse behind the plate, starting the Bucs final 16 games of the season at catcher including all nine postseason contests. He had 19 multi-hit games on the year including a pair at the FCSAA Championships for which he was named to the All-Tournament Team. Pereira finished his FSW career with 13 home runs which puts him 7th on the program's all-time list while his 74 RBIs are tied for the 4th most.
Equally as impressive in the classroom, Pereira had the top GPA of any graduating FSW male student-athlete with a 3.91 mark while earning his Associate of Arts degree in May. The Physical Therapy major was a two time NJCAA All-Academic award winner as well as earning FCSAA All-Academic All-State honors in both of his playing seasons with the Bucs.
Established in 1952 and selected by College Sports Communicators, Academic All-America is the longest running and premier award for athletic and academic success across championship college sports at all NCAA levels, the NAIA, two-year colleges and Canadian institutions.
Pereira was chosen as one of just 16 1st Team Academic All-Americans Nationwide across all two-year sports and was one of just five Baseball players to earn the honor. He joins FSW Softball player Skylar Brennan and Volleyball player Julija Grubisic Cabo as the only three student-athletes from the state of Florida to earn the award.
He joins an exclusive club that includes former CSC Academic All-Americans such as Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Caitlin Clark, Buster Posey, John Stockton, Bill Walton, and Drew Brees.