Spring Valley Academy Graduate Drafted by Professional Basketball Team
By AT News Team, April 19, 2015: Andrea Hoover, a graduate of Spring Valley Academy (SVA), an Adventist school offering Kindergarten through grade 12, has been drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks, a professional basketball team in California. SVA is serves the Dayton (Ohio) metro area and is located in the suburb of Centerville. Hoover is a member of the Kettering (Ohio) Adventist congregation.
Hoover and University of Dayton (UD) teammate Ally Malott are the first two women from the university to be drafted by teams in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), reported the Dayton Daily News. Hoover was selected with the 31st overall pick in the third round. Last month Hoover led the UD Flyers to the team’s first entrance into the Elite Eight, or the regional collegiate basketball finals, by beating the Louisville Cardinals 82 to 66 on March 28. “This one was all about Andrea Hoover,” declared sports news outlet ESPN about the win.
Hoover, a 5-foot 9-inch point guard, led the UD Flyers in scoring this season with 17.4 points per game. She also averaged 3.2 assists and 6.3 rebounds. Over her collegiate career, Hoover scored 1,838 points, ranking fourth in UD history, noted the Dayton Daily News. Hoover set a UD record for made three-point baskets—239 over her career. Furthermore, she had three double-doubles and scored 20 or more points in 14 games this season.
Hoover received the Charles R. Hendall Memorial Award at the annual OASSA Scholar-Athlete Awards Reception, which recognizes an individual student-athlete who has demonstrated achievement in academic and athletic effort, according to Hoover’s UD Flyers webpage. She received A-10 First Team and Academic Team honors for the third-consecutive year, and she was named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team.
Hoover will soon graduate with a degree in sports management with minors in communication and psychology, according to her profile on the Senior CLASS Award website. She has a cumulative grade-point average of 3.68, and she hopes to one day coach college basketball. She has been named to the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll five times and has also made the UD Dean’s List in five out of her six semesters as a Flyer. The website also notes that Hoover’s “faith is a big part of her personality, and she has served as the team’s prayer leader last season.”
In addition to her athletic and academic efforts, during her time at UD Hoover has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society, and DECA, which offers an after-school program for disadvantaged children.