The athletes at Orem High School have quietly had a terrific fall season.

The most visible achievement that the Tigers have garnered was their second straight girls tennis team title, also the third in four years.

The Craig sisters finished their remarkable careers by going 4-for-4 in the playoffs. This year, Callie won the first singles crown and Kelsie took the second singles honors.

Teammates Whitney Pearson and Ellery Young also captured the championship in second doubles.

But that was by no means all that Orem's students accomplished.

In golf, Dalton Stanger finished second at the state meet. The team was fourth, but only 10 strokes out of second.

Tiger freshman Summer Harper came in second in the girls cross country state race; she is going to provide some excitement at the school for years to come. The team was sixth overall.

In the boys race, the Orem squad was fourth, led by junior Taylor Charles in fifth place. Only two of the scoring runners were seniors, so there's some nice potential there as well.

The girls soccer team finished second in a tough Region 7, and it took Woods Cross overtime to eliminate the Tigers in the first round of the state tournament.

Good as it was, however, their season was not the most impressive thing about this particular Orem team.

Instead, I'd like to reference page 11 in the state tournament program. That's where you'll find the listings for Academic All-State.

This year in 4A, UHSAA executive director Rob Cuff said they had the largest academic team ever, with 22 players, because they all had a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA.

The Tigers have four players on that list, the most of any single school, including two of the top three and three of the top eight.

Midfielder Kaci McNeil leads it, and she was one the squad's key players as well -- a true scholar-athlete in every sense of the word. Jenna Bowen, Steinia Dort and Maggie Plothow fit that description pretty well, too.

The volleyball team is solidly in third place in Region 7, which is also very competitive in this sport. Orem split with leaders Mountain View and Lehi, so that shows the team is right up there with the state tournament coming next week.

And the football team? Given up for dead after several early disappointments, the Tigers have worked their way back to a third-place tie in the region and a playoff berth.

But once again, the thing that impressed me most about this squad had nothing to do with gridiron action.

As I was covering a girls soccer contest between Orem and one of its cross-town rivals earlier this year, I was astounded to see nearly the entire football team fill the stands after completing their own practice and giving loud vocal support to the kickers the rest of the way.

I asked the school administrator on hand if this was unusual, and he assured me that it wasn't.

The principal said the football coach encourages his players to support other athletes at the school, but he doesn't make them, and most of them would come anyway.

If that's actually true, that's a terrific compliment to the school and to the young men involved. It's pretty much taken for granted that the girls will go support the boys teams, but it's not often you see the opposite with this kind of number and impact.

If that's indicative of the kind of school spirit that the Tigers have, it's no wonder they've performed so well lately on the state's biggest stages.

• Beky Beaton can be reached at bbeaton@heraldextra.com.