Bergh Earns DWU’s First CoSIDA Academic All-American Basketball Honor

MITCHELL, S.D. – With the Great Plains Athletic Conference postseason tournament on the horizon for the Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team, junior guard Trae Bergh picked up another academic honor to add to his collection.

The Crooks, S.D., native was named to the Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-American First Team, it was announced Monday. Only five college basketball players with a sophomore or higher academic standing were selected to the team from all NAIA schools, as well as Canadian and two-year institutions. The award is voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The rest of the team consisted of Bethel College's Matt Schauss and Zach Miller, Tony Smit of Cardinal Stritch University and Bryan Redic of Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Schauss was selected as the Capital One CoSIDA All-American of the Year.

Bergh is the first basketball player at DWU to earn the award and also the only the second Tiger to ever make the first team in any sport. In 2011, DWU football player Aaron Rolen was named to the Academic All-American First Team, while, in 2012, DWU football player Skyler Eriksen was named to the second team by CoSIDA.

In the fall of 2014, Bergh was also selected as the Emil S. Liston Award winner. The honor goes to one NAIA men's and women's basketball player with a junior standing and includes a $1,000 scholarship.

The athletic training major is currently playing a big role for the Tigers on the court as well. Bergh is averaging 15.7 points per game and has a team-high 41 steals in 30 games. He is seven points shy of breaking the 1,000-point barrier for his career.

Bergh and the No. 2 seed Tigers open the GPAC tournament against No. 7 seed Concordia University at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D.