Cozad Named as CoSIDA Academic All-American

COSIDA Release | TU Honors Page

AUSTIN, Texas – Erin Cozad of the Taylor University softball program was recognized recently as a CoSIDA NAIA Softball Second-Team Academic All-American, as voted on and announced by College Sports Information Directors of America.

The prestigious list contained a total of 10 infielders, with Cozad being one-of-six infielders on the Second-Team. Stats and honors from the individual's entire career were considered for the awards due to the 2020 spring seasons being cut short by COVID-19.

Cozad was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American for the first time, following a pair of CoSIDA Academic All-District selections. The public relations major with a 3.98 grade-point average will also collect NAIA Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-Crossroads League honors later this summer for the second-straight year.

On the field, Cozad improved each season at the plate, ending her senior campaign with a career-best .378/.500/.649/1.149 slash line in 14 games and piling up 111 hits, 36 extra-base hits and 40 stolen bases over 153 games played with the Purple and Gold.

Cozad joined Andrew Kennedy of TU baseball in receiving a CoSIDA Academic All-American award recently, moving the number of Taylor student-athletes to earn the honor in 2019-2020 to seven. That mark puts Taylor Athletics among the nation's finest, while TU leads all NCAA and NAIA institutions by a wide gap with 40 CoSIDA Academic All-District awards this year.

Taylor now boasts 92 CoSIDA Academic All-American honors in school history, with 90 of those coming since 2010. Of those 92 awards, 49 have been First-Team Academic All-Americans.

The Taylor softball program has accounted for six of those total honors, with Cozad becoming TU's fourth CoSIDA NAIA Softball Academic All-American since 2015.

The CoSIDA Academic All-American award is designed to recognize student-athletes for outstanding achievements in the classroom, as well as on the court or field of play. In order to be eligible for the honor, an athlete must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30, must have reached sophomore status academically with at least one full year at their current institution and must have participated in over half of the team's competitions as a key contributor during the current season.

Student-athletes are nominated for the award by their institution's Sports Information Department and voted on by members of CoSIDA.