News for the Week of Dec. 5, 2011

Program Notes for the Week of 12/5/2011:

Postseason Awards:
Over the next few weeks we will recap the many postseason awards earned by our Shoregals. This week we will highlight academic awards that have been received:

Team Academic All-Americans
I am very excited to announce that the girls were awarded Team Academic All-America status for the 2010-2011 school year this past week by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). This is the highest academic honor that high school soccer teams may receive in the country. Avon Lake was one of only 215 teams nationwide (about 4 per state) to receive this prestigious award and the team GPA was 4.03! Furthermore, the girls were one of only 26 teams nationwide to have a team GPA of 4.00 or above. To qualify for the award, a team must have a minimum grade point average of 3.25 for the entire academic year. The way that this award is figured is based on the fact that a number of states play Spring soccer only and in order to include all states the NSCAA waits until after the Spring season is completed to determine the award winners. That is why the award for last year is just being announced in early December. This was actually last year's team that won the award and would include graduated seniors Maddie Bernard, Mary Donegan, Sarah Hudson, Jessica Murdock, and Morgan Srail. This year's team is also on track to receive Academic All-America status again for the current academic year next November. The Shoregals also received this award in 2010 & 2008.

Scholar-Athlete Award
We would like to recognize again the team Scholar-Athlete award for the past two seasons which goes to the senior with the highest GPA which was presented to Maddie Bernard for the 2010 season and Jillian Strimbu was the recipient for the 2011 season.

Collegiate Academic All-American:
In addition, Trisha Wladecki who was a former Shoregal and an individual Academic All-American in 2008 as well as part of the Avon Lake team award has continued her strong academic performance with the Valparaiso women's soccer team.  The Valpo women's team has been awarded Team Academic All-America status for the 2010-2011 academic year of which Trisha was a member.

Congratulations to all our Shoregal scholars!!  It is a pleasure to be able to report not only successes on the field but also in the classroom as well.  The girls soccer program has a legacy of achievement that continues with each new generation of players and is truly something to be admired.


Soccer Site of the Week:
We will continue with our spotlight of local premier clubs. This week we will feature the Ohio Premier Soccer Club which can be found at:

http://www.ohiopremier.com/

Another Westside oriented team. A number of our younger travel players are on various OP teams.  Check them out.


Cudos Corner:
Many thanks to Vic & Debbie Strimbu for hosting the world premier showing of the 2011 highlight DVD.  Also, special thanks must go to Vic Strimbu for the past 4 years of both highlight DVD's and the photobooks. Those will end up being nice keepsakes for the girls in the years to come. It should not be underestimated the amount of time involved to take the pictures, edit them, and then put together video and books. We are grateful that Vic was willing to do this over a number of years and also did the same things for the boys team.  Great, Great job!!