Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/22/14
From Press Release
For his success on and off the field, Lehigh senior defenseman Ty Souders (Emmaus) has been named a candidate for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, as announced on Thursday.
The Macungie native is one of just 20 players in the nation and four in the Patriot League named a candidate. The two-time All-American leads one of the nation’s top defenses and has impressed in the classroom, owning a 3.54 GPA as a Finance major.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The candidate class will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2014 NCAA Lacrosse Championships in Baltimore, May 24-26.
Souders is Lehigh’s second candidate in the last four years, along with Jonathan Stumpf who was named a finalist and garnered a spot on the program’s All-American First Team.
Souders has enjoyed strong success in the classroom, owning a 3.54 GPA as a Finance major. He has been named to the end-of-year Patriot League Academic Honor Roll on multiple occasions while making the Dean’s List each of the last two semesters. Souders has garnered the Faculty Athletics Council Award every semester (for a GPA over 3.2). He’s been one of only 11 players in the league named to the Academic All-Patriot League Team, earning a spot on the team each of the last two seasons.
The Emmaus High School graduate has work experience in his field at Solebury Capital Group as an Equity Capital Markets Summer Analyst. He worked there this past summer, performing a case study analyzing gross spreads for all IPO’s from 2008-2013, using data pulled from Dealogic in order to determine the effect on bank proceeds when an advisor was on the deal.
Souders was responsible for updating various databases, daily market summaries and drafting internal memos. He contributed to the breakdown of pitch books into a consolidated summary for clients, specifically created biography pages on research analysts.
Souders was voted a captain for the 2014 season and was a game captain as a junior last season. Souders has been part of Lehigh’s Leadership Legacies Program where he participates in biweekly workshops to become a more effective team leader. As part of the program, he studies conflict resolution, communication and group dynamics. Souders is a tremendous influence for his younger teammates in all areas.
He is also a founder/coach of Souders Defensive Fundamentals, teaching hour-long private lessons for high school defensemen who want to improve their fundamental and overall lacrosse knowledge. Souders organizes lesson plans and schedules facilities to the satisfaction of athletes and their parents.
Lehigh men’s lacrosse is very active in the local community and Souders has helped pave the way. He recently volunteered at the Bethlehem Boys and Girls Club and Calypso Elementary Homework Club on Wednesday afternoons during the fall semester, doing various activities with the youngsters, including help with homework and athletics.
Souders has been involved with Make a Wish, MS Society, selling t-shirts and collecting change while helping raise over $2,000 for various charities. Souders and the Mountain Hawks host a yearly “Community Night” in the fall as local youngsters converge at Lehigh for a one-hour clinic with the players and coaches.
Souders has been involved with C.O.A.C.H. at Lehigh (Community Outreach by Athletes who Care about Helping), a service program that operates in accord with the National Consortium for Academics and Sports to help (along with parents, teachers and coaches) middle and high school student-athletes and their peers, make informed choices regarding their education, drug and alcohol issues and other factors which may affect reaching their full potential.
Souders and other Lehigh student-athletes talk about substance abuse, time management, academic motivation and other concerns of younger students and student-athletes.
The C.O.A.C.H. program handles numerous presentations to student groups in settings ranging from team meetings to school assemblies to sports banquets. They also run sports clinics with an educational theme, group outings to Lehigh athletic events and more.
One special event is an annual Adopt-A-Family around the holidays. Each Lehigh Athletics team adopts an underprivileged family; they then raise money throughout the semester to purchase holiday presents for their adopted family. The event wraps up with an event where all the student-athletes present the gifts to the families. The Mountain Hawks raise nearly $30,000 annually.
On the field, Souders has excelled since setting foot on campus. He has started every game and has been part of Lehigh Lacrosse’s transformation (and especially the defense), which has become one of the best in the country. The Lehigh defense ranked second nationally in 2012, holding opponents to just 6.61 goals per game. The Mountain Hawks followed in 2013 by finishing sixth in the nation (7.94 goals per game).
Souders owns 106 career groundballs and 45 caused turnovers, earning All-America recognition each of the last two seasons along with First then Second Team All-Patriot League honors, respectively. He had 29 groundballs and eight caused turnovers as a freshman, 31 and 15 as a sophomore and 35 and 19 as a junior. So far this season, Souders has posted 11 groundballs and three caused turnovers.
Souders was named team captain for 2014 and a Second Team preseason All-American in the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook. The Mountain Hawks’ defense was predicted as the #3 unit for 2014 by Inside Lacrosse. Souders was selected 22nd overall by the Denver Outlaws in January’s Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft.
Following Sunday’s thrilling triple overtime win over #20 Villanova on Sunday, the #14/15 ranked Mountain Hawks now hit the road for their Patriot League opener at Boston University on Saturday. Opening faceoff is set for 1 p.m.
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