The Gulf South Conference announced Federico Iturbe from the University of West Alabama and Latizia Bojara from the University of Montevallo as the 2026 Champion Scholar-Athletes for men’s tennis and women’s tennis, respectively.

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHOLAR-ATHLETE HISTORY

Iturbe was recognized with the GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award after posting a 4.00 grade point average while majoring in computer engineering technology. He is West Alabama’s second recipient during the 2025-26 academic year and first honoree from the men’s tennis program. 

Bojara was recognized with the GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award after posting a 4.00 grade point average while majoring in psychology. She is West Alabama’s second recipient during the 2025-26 academic year and first honoree for the women’s program since the 2019-20 academic year. 

The Gulf South Conference has presented the Champion Scholar-Athlete Award since the 2019-20 academic year. The award is given out at the final site of each GSC Championship event and awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA among teams participating. Each student-athlete GPA is based on the most recently completed term, and the individual must have a minimum of 48 credit hours to be eligible for the award. Student-athletes are only eligible to win the award once per academic year.