This is why student is listed first in student-athlete.

Each year, the various Ohio high school coaches associations select all-academic teams and Lawrence County is well represented.

Chesapeake senior Alex Wells became the first student-athlete from the area named on the newly former list that honors All-Ohio players who are also All-Academic.

The player must be recognized as a first team selection all-conference, all-county or all-district and accumulate a grade point average of 3.693 or better. Only 66 players among the 35,000 in Ohio qualified for the award and Wells was among those 66 honored.

Wells was named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference first team, all-district first team in Division V and earned All-Ohio honors.

Chesapeake as a team was listed 38th on the list of top team GPAs with a 3.317 average. Massillon topped the list with a 3.819 team GPA.

The basketball coaches announced their list of academic and athletic standouts, three of whom were from Lawrence County.

Chad Harvey of Ironton St. Joseph was on the Division IV list with 3.91 GPA. He averaged 24.3 points a game.

In Division III, Chesapeake’s Kyle Webb and South Point’s Chase Kratzenberg were honored. Webb averaged 20.4 points a game with a 3.96 GPA and Kratzenberg posted a 3.91 GPA to go with his 17.1 scoring average.

The baseball coaches announced their list from last season with Coal Grove’s Zack Murphy, St. Joseph’s Jerrod Laber and Chesapeake’s Kyle Rase among the 180 players honored from the 23,000 players on 793 teams.

Players must start 70 percent of their games and pitchers must start 25 percent of a team’s game. Players must be among the top 25 students in their class and have a 1,000 or more score on their SAT or a 21 or more on their ACT.

Murphy, who is a freshman infielder for Otterbein College, was also the recipient of a coaches’ association $500 scholarship. He also earned the Bill Boyd Athletic Scholarship and the United States Army Reserve National Scholar/Athlete award.