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CATS Helping UK Athletes In Classroom
Kentucky Athletes Best Students In SEC
The University of Kentucky is known for its great basketball teams and for its overall good athletic department.
But UK is now earning a reputation for something even more important, the academic performance of its student-athletes in the classroom.
'We have the best counseling center in college athletics," said UK basketball coach Eddie Sutton. "Bob Bradley and his staff do the best job around."
UK's CATS, the Center for Academic and Tutorial Services, has helped student-athletes become the best students in the
Mel Holbrook
Cats' Pause Columnist
Southeastern Conference. That's especially true of the football team, which annually puts the most players on the all-conference academic squads every year.
The CATS center, located in Memorial Coliseum, looks more like a weight room because of all the football players that congregate there on a daily basis.
'We've made students out of athletes," said Bradley, UK's assistant athletic director for academics. "Cliff Hagan (the athletic director) has made this a reality."
UK First To Have Tutorial Service For Players
Kentucky is the first university in the nation to open an academic center for student-athletes. UK has operated the multipurpose facility since 1982, although Bradley has been on campus since 1977.
T approached Cliff about the idea of having the center," said Bradley, a New York native. "He thought about it awhile. I kept after him. He listened. Finally, Cliff told me to get some plans together. He went to the athletics board with the project. We opened in the spring of '82, right after (football coach) Jerry Claiborne arrived."
Bradley's staff includes Phil Hughes, academic counselor, and Barb Deniston, the learning skills coordinator. Graduate assistants include David Hoag, Dan Potosky, Gary Weber and Ken Pietrowiak, who is one of the top 22 academic Ail-Americans in the country.
More than 200 student-athletes visit the CATS center each day for tutorial and counseling advice on a variety of topics, not all class related.
"We try to be a support system for them," said Deniston. "We try to help them be less frustrated with the college scene. Sometimes, we can be a sounding board. A lot of them need to talk about their problems. It's really important we listen and try to help. That trust is the most important thing."
The center is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, .8-4:30 p.m. Friday and 6-10 p.m. Sunday. The staff is always on call for student-athletes in need of assistance.
Administration Gives CATS Strong Support
"We have an unlimited tutorial budget," said Bradley, who is a member of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. "The university put over $200,000 into building the center. The furniture alone cost about $30,000. But that doesn't mean I get out of hand with our spending, not at all. There's such a support system here from the university, it's unbelievable."
That includes the football and basketball coaches. Bradley says Claiborne is the most amazing coach in the country to work with as far as his players' educations ai e concerned.
"I remember I went to Maryland for a conference right after Claiborne came to Kentucky," said Bradley of Claiborne's former school. "Jim Dietz, the academic advisor at the time, told me I'd died and gone to heaven because of Claiborne's commitment to academics. I've heard horror stories about other coaches."
Bradley says he hasn't worked with Sutton very long, but feels Sutton is just as concerned with the basketball players getting a good education at UK.
But unlike what some people may think, the CATS center is not only for basketball or football players. Athletes from other
so-called "minor" sports also use the center.
CATS Center Role A Model For Entire Nation
"There's no other program in the country that has what we have," said Bradley, an education graduate of Salem College