Male Student-Athlete: Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Greenberg is using his brain for success

By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/8/08

Jacques Greenberg said he’s learned great empathy by growing up with a younger sister who has significant disabilities.

That has led the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior to pursue a career in neurology and psychiatry.

“I have a sister who is mentally retarded so I have always had to learn as much as I can about mental illness,” said Greenberg. “The brain controls everything. I want to go into psychiatry eventually, so I want to understand the brain.”

Greenberg, a four-year letter-winner and a key starter on defense for the Colonials, earned early admittance to Brown University’s pre-med program and will study cognitive neuroscience.

Ranked No. 1 in his class, Greenberg has a perfect 4.0 GPA with a weighted GPA of 5.071. He is the class Valedictorian and will make the commencement speech at graduation next month.

These accomplishments have earned Greenberg the Laxzilla/Phillylacrosse.com Male Student-Athlete of the Week.

“He’s an ambassador to the team,” said PW coach Phil Chang. “When you get new kids, and talk to teachers about kids, you talk about kids like Jacques.

“He does academics well, he does athletics well. He is a great kid with great character. He comes from a good family and he does all those good things. He is one of those kids that we’re really proud to have in our program.”

The Colonials program also has done well on the field this year. PW, despite returning only three starters, is in third place in the Suburban One American Conference with a 9-3 record (10-4 overall).

The biggest win of the year came last Friday in a 12-11 triumph over second-place Upper Dublin. That took the sting out a tough 10-5 loss to Wissahickon.

“It was the first time we’ve ever beaten Upper Dublin,” said Greenberg. “We came out of that (loss) much more motivated to play.

“We out hustled Upper Dublin and came out with a win. We only returned three starters, and a lot of teams thought this was a rebuilding year. But we surprised a few people and did well overall.”