YU Soccer Teams Receive United Soccer Coaches’ Team Academic Award, Women’s Team GPA Exceeds Men’s by 12.4 %

The Yeshiva University’s men and women’s soccer teams have received the United Soccer Coaches’ Team Academic Award for the 2016-2017 season. United Soccer Coaches gives this award to all college teams who are represented in the United Soccer Coaches association who have a grade point average above 3.0. The YU men’s team GPA was 3.14 and the women’s GPA was 3.53, 12.4% higher than the men’s. This marks the third season in a row that YU has won this award.

There were 837 teams who received the honor, but only 213 schools had both their men and women’s team qualify. Of those 837 teams who won, 549 the women’s team and 299 were men’s teams.

“Our student-athletes are unique in that they have mastered the ability to excel on the field of play and in the classroom,” Athletics Director Joe Bednarsh told The Commentator. YU student-athletes are especially unique because in addition to having secular classes and practice for NCAA-level athletics, student-athletes at YU need to balance in their Judaic Studies courses as well.  

Mr. Bednarsh declined to comment on the wide gap between the men’s and women’s GPAs.

YU Men’s Soccer Coach, Joshua Pransky, attributed the large gap between the men’s and women’s GPA’s to the large amount of international students on his men’s team. On the 2016-2017 men’s roster, 10 out of the 22 players listed at YUMacs.com were international students coming from countries including Australia, Spain, Venezuela and Israel. That same year, the women’s team had only two players of their 22 from outside the US and only one player, Anabella Berti (class of 2020) of Venezuela, came from a non-English speaking country.  

“[Being from a foreign country] sometimes shows in their grades in their first few semesters on campus which shows up on our team GPA,” Pransky said.  Though the men’s GPA may have been weighed down because of international students adjusting to life in the US, Coach Pransky reminded The Commentator that ”they keep their grades high enough to win awards,” so, as a school, we should be “proud” of this accomplishment.

Women’s soccer coach Marc Zarhest also expressed his pride in his team’s accomplishment.

“The fact that they succeed both on and off [the field] is the real win,” he said.