VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (April 7, 2021) – Junior Rachael Scoones (Waterville, NY / Waterville) was chosen as the USCAA Women's Soccer Division I Student-Athlete of the Year, as announced by the national office in a virtual recognition ceremony Tuesday night. Scoones is a two-sport student-athlete in soccer and softball. She was notified by surprise following her soccer practice Tuesday prior to the virtual ceremony, with both her teams in attendance, including women's soccer head coach Lauren Mackay and softball head coach Meagan Stone.
"I just want to say thank you to the USCAA for awarding this to me," said Scoones in her acceptance speech. "I also want to say thank you to my coaches and everybody in the Athletics Department, they truly have pushed me to be where I am right now."
As presented by the USCAA:
"Rachael Scoones is in her third season on both the softball and women's soccer programs and is a Recreation & Sports Management major. She is heavily involved in SUNY Delhi Athletics, including as the Secretary for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was recently elected to serve as the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) representative on the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Her other accolades have included academic honors from the NAC, ACAA, and USCAA, a SUNY Delhi Scholar-Athlete, and during the 2019 soccer season was chosen as the NAC Defensive Player of the Week and USCAA Goalie of the Week in the same week.
On a personal level, Rachael attended a Beyond Sports effort in Costa Rica last summer and she assisted with Special Olympics events and spent the week teaching physical education and movement classes in local schools. According to Head Coach Lauren Mackay: this student-athlete "has grown tremendously while at Delhi. She is a confident leader who has taken action to improve herself physically and mentally. She is very busy with two sports but takes time to prepare her own meals with healthy nutrition in mind. She spends time training in her sport to become better and always wants to make those around her better as well."
VIEW THE USCAA STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR VIRTUAL CEREMONY HERE! RACHAEL'S RECOGNITION BEGINS AT 18:10. HER SPEECH AT 28:25!
