BEREA, OHIO -- Three Baldwin-Wallace College Men's Soccer standout student-athletes, senior center back Jeff Grater (Stow/ Stow-Munroe Falls), sophomore midfielder Pat Brennan (Akron/ Walsh Jesuit) and senior midfielder Jeff Bonezzi (Medina/ Senior), have been named to the ESPN Academic All-District IV teams. Grater and Brennan were selected to the first-team and now qualify for the national ESPN Academic All-America ballot and Bonezzi was tabbed to the third-team.
"This is outstanding and indicative of three young men who have excelled both academically and athletically," said ninth-year Head Coach Reid Ayers. "All three are excellent students first, team and campus leaders second and outstanding soccer players. All of our younger student-athletes look up to these three as role models. The trio is accomplishing exactly what we want all of our young men to accomplish. We are extremely proud of each of them."
Grater, an accounting major who carries a 3.922 grade point average, is a two-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All-Region, two-time Academic All-OAC and two-time ESPN Academic All-District student-athlete who led B-W to 36 victories the past three seasons prior to playing in today's OAC Tournament contest versus Capital University in Columbus at 2:00 p.m. He transferred to BW after his freshman year at Calvin (Mich.) College. In his three seasons at B-W, Grater has appeared in 59 games while tallying six goals and five assists for 17 points. He had a career-best three goals and three assists last season. Grater has also recorded 92 shots which 37 of them were on goal. He is a Dean's List student, a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society and is a Jacket Scholar.
Brennan, an accounting major with a 3.79 grade average, has made an impact in the Yellow Jacket program since stepping on campus last fall. In two seasons, he has netted nine goals and nine assists for 27 points on 61 shots. Brennan has tallied a career-best five goals this season and had a career-high six assists last season. In addition, he has scored three game winning goals in his career, including one this season. Brennan is a member of the Alpha Lambda Honor Society.
Bonezzi, a health and physical education major with a 3.7 grade average, is completing his second season of soccer after running cross country for two seasons and running track for three. In soccer, he has appeared in 40 matches with three goals and four assists for 10 points. Bonezzi has tallied a career-best two goals this season and a career-high three assists a year ago. In cross country and track, he was one of the top runners and earned All-OAC accolades in track in the 800-meter run. Bonezzi is a Dean's List student, a member of the Chi Sigma Alpha Honor Society and received the Dave & June Demmerle Scholarship
Following its match versus Capital today, the trio hope to move on to an OAC semifinal match on Thursday, Nov. 4 and then to the OAC Championship match on Saturday, Nov. 6.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Asst. SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access BW athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
