Winning on the field is great, but winning off of the field to Head Soccer Coach Mike McLaughlin '85.
McLaughlin's emphasis on excellence in the classroom is evident in the results. For the 19th year in a row, the Saint Ignatius soccer program earned Team Academic All-America honors from the United Soccer Coaches, as well as Team Academic All-Ohio.
The soccer program is filled not only with talented soccer players, but very bright young men.
As a team, the Wildcats' GPA is pretty impressive. The Soccer Cats recorded a team GPA of 3.58. That's pretty darn good.
Just as impressive, the Wildcats set a record for Academic All-Ohio honorees. A total of nine Soccer Cats surpassed the 3.3 GPA bar required for Academic All-Ohio.
In the last 20 years, no Ohio other team has notched more Academic All-Ohio student-athletes than the Wildcats.
Here are the Wildcats' Academic All-Ohio honorees:
Joe Katic: 4.21 GPA
Matthew McLaughlin: 4.18 GPA
Danny Radigan: 3.90 GPA
Gavan Richards: 3.77 GPA
Ryan Roberts: 4.38 GPA
Nick Russo: 3.95 GPA
Ian Sugar: 3.86 GPA
Peter Van Euwen: 4.44 GPA
Austin Zeleznik: 3.91 GPA
In addition, we have more Wildcats to give shoutouts to.
At the Greater Cleveland Awards, several Wildcats were honored. McLaughlin was named the Player of the Year and to the 1st Team. Kyle Folds and Van Euwen joined him on the top team.
Everett Shorey made the 2nd Team after a 30-goal season.
Danny Kalic, Theo Kudlo, and Ryan Notarianni also earned honors, snagging honorable mention.
Congrats to all of our Academic All-Ohioans and Greater Cleveland honorees!