NJCU WOMEN’S SOCCER WINS NSCAA COLLEGE TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD
NJCU WOMEN'S SOCCER WINS NSCAA COLLEGE TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD
KANSAS CITY, KS (www.NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University women's soccer team has won 27 games in the last two seasons due to its hard work and dedication on the field and it has carried over to the classroom, where the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) have honored the Gothic Knights for their academic excellence. NJCU has been recognized as a 2010 NSCAA College Team Academic Award Winner for the 2009-10 academic year, marking the first time in school history that the Knights have been collectively honored for their academic prowess on a national level.
To be eligible for the honor, teams in Division I, II and III must have achieved a collective grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. The 20 players on the 2009-10 squad had an overall GPA of 3.01 and 10 players achieved a 3.50 GPA in at least one of the two semesters while five athletes twice had at least a 3.50.
Reacting to the national honor for his team, fifth-year head coach ROBERT BIELAN said: "As we've been building this program into a post-season contender, we've recruited young women we felt were truly student-athletes and who would come to NJCU for all the right reasons. To become a successful program you have to work hard on the field and to know our players are working equally as hard in the classroom is very rewarding because this is preparing them for the rest of their lives. I'm really thrilled because it's a wonderful award. This was my vision—to have a program that would achieve both athletically and academically."
Of the 10 schools in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, NJCU was one of only three to earn the national award; Ramapo College and Rowan University joined the Knights on the list.
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