Jill Recod is the first FTCC athlete to earn NJCAA All-Academic honors twice.
Volleyball player Jill Recod has certainly made the most of her time at Fayetteville Tech.
“I’m trying my best,” she says.
The Raeford native will wrap up her time at FTCC with a pair of degrees and two years of competition on the court with the Trojans.
She’ll take with her a unique distinction.
Recod is the first FTCC athlete to earn NJCAA All-Academic honors twice, maintaining at least a 3.60 3.60 GPA while playing in 30 matches across two years.
Recod hasn’t earned the designation on a light course load either. She’ll finish this fall with two associate degrees, one in criminal justice and another in general education.
“I’ve been working on them side-by-side,” Recod says. “Along with the criminal justice degree, I’ll take my general education degree and turn it into a psychology degree. My end goal is to be a behavioral analyst.”
Volleyball player Jill Recod (right) faces off at net in practice on Aug. 29, 2019. [FTCC photo by Brad Losh]
Recod just might deserve another award for time management. She’s balanced her coursework with her athletics commitments, as well as working part time at a restaurant.
“I’ve always been an athlete, so in high school, I always had a schedule of classes and then straight into practice, whether it was volleyball, basketball, soccer or whatever,” Recod said.
The structure of Recod’s day had a familiar tempo.
“I think having volleyball really helped with the transition from high school to college. It was nice to have classes and then go straight into study hall and then practice or games.”
Recod made several decisions that helped her maximize the balance between school and sports.
She elected to carry the minimum course load of 12 credit hours during the volleyball season, took advantage of student support resources and opted for in-person courses over online classes to spend the day on campus.
“It was a lot of work, getting to class and then to volleyball on time,” Recod said. “But I think it helped to have that schedule.”
