RUSTON ? Louisiana Tech?s women?s basketball program saw six of its former student-athletes graduate this past year, something head coach Chris Long said makes his staff very proud.

Margaret DeCiman (winter, 2006), Tasha Williams (spring, 2007), Shan Moore (spring, 2007), Tamika Kursh (spring, 2007), Ty Moore (spring, 2007) and Amber Metoyer (summer, 2007) all graduated during the past academic school year.

?We work very hard on the academic side,? Long said. ?Brooke Stoehr does a great job of staying on top of our players and making sure nobody falls through the cracks. I'm very proud of these six young ladies getting their degrees.?

Although graduating its student-athletes has always been the No. 1 goal at Louisiana Tech, Long said with the NCAA?s Academic Progress Report (APR) in place, it?s even more vital.

Long said that because of the academic work of his players, the Lady Techster team APR has been well above the minimum requirement of 925 during the past two years.

?It takes effort to play college basketball and do well in the classroom, and we are serious about our players graduating,? Long said. ?I often tell our players their legs could be taken from them at anytime but nobody can take away their degrees."