CWU’s Women’s Soccer has succeeded in winning another Team Academic Award for the 2018-2019 season. The qualifications for this award is to keep a GPA of 3.0 or higher for the team as a whole. The team averaged a 3.38 cumulative GPA, making this the 10th time they have won the award. Almost one thousand teams won the award, including 652 women and 347 men. 

Assistant coach Madison Kroger said the coaches are very proud of them, although they hold the team to a high academic standing.

“We have the expectation for excellence in the classroom,” Kroger said. 

Midfielder Sophia Keenan said she felt hyped about the winning the academic award, because it is important to perform well in the classroom and in everything you do. 

Kroger said the athletic department has set up multiple resources for student athletes to better their study skills, complete study hour and receive tutoring. CWU has its Wildcat Academic Success Center (WASC) where players can achieve their academic and intellectual goals. WASC provides study hall, advising meetings and CWU Career Services referrals. 

“It is tough to balance school and soccer, but if you are organized and you communicate with your professors, coaches and captains ahead of time, you will save yourself a lot of stress,” Keenan said.

Student athletes like Keenan are able to learn study skills by going to the WASC and attending study hall. There they are able to develop time management skills to balance their time with school and sports. When joining a sports team, students must sign a release form to agree to have their grades sent quarterly for evaluation. This allows coaches and athletic administration to check their GPA and see how the student athletes are doing academically. If athletes keep their 

GPA up while enrolled in a sport, they are able to continue to compete. 

Assistant coach Kroger said that even though they travel so much, the women on the team do a great job managing their academic schedule with their soccer schedule. The women’s soccer team has been on the road to locations such as Idaho and British Columbia playing against other schools, such as 

Forward Mackinzie Packwood said that it was a challenging adjustment to learn how to balance school and soccer, but when she learned how to stay organized, she learned to like having the set schedule that balances the two. 

CWU’s women’s soccer completed a successful 2018-2019 academic season.