Men?s Gymnastics Claims First Life Skills Title

Lincoln, Neb. - The Nebraska men's gymnastics program captured its first-ever Life Skills Team Award in 2010. The award honors the team that demonstrates the strongest commitment to all phases of the Nebraska Life Skills Program over the past academic year, including outreach, education and leadership.

The Life Skills Award was presented at NU's annual Student-Athlete Academic Recognition Banquet, which was held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday night.

Since the start of the 2009-10 academic year, the NU men's gymnastics team has done a number of community service activities, including serving meals at the People's City Mission, participating in the Read to Succeed Book Drive, helping with Operation Christmas Child, fundraising with the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and distributing holiday gifts to children of the Armed Forces. Nebraska senior Josh Rusler, who accepted the award on the team's behalf, was in charge of organizing the gymnastics team with Life Skills activities.

"Winning this award has been our goal all year because it is such a great feeling to know that we can give back to the community and thank them [the people of Lincoln] for all they have done for us," Rusler said. "Our guys worked hard to set aside free time with their busy school and practice schedules to do outreach events, which shows character and heart. I am so happy for our team and thankful that the University of Nebraska Athletic Department provides us with such an awarding opportunity."

Nebraska initiated the Life Skills Award of Excellence Team Competition during the 2003-04 academic year, which is designed to promote student-athlete involvement in campus-wide programming, community service and leadership, while enhancing student-athletes' preparation for life after sports.

All 21 Husker teams took part in the program, which assigned points to individual and team efforts in the Life Skills categories of team enhancement, outreach, athletes supporting athletes, personal enhancement, leadership and team GPA. Other points were earned by going above and beyond the traditional categories and communicating with the Student-Athlete Advisory Board and Husker Outreach Council.