Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/3/14
From Press Release
Continuing his success on and off the field, Lehigh men’s lacrosse standout Ty Souders has been named a finalist for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, as announced on Wednesday. The original pool of 20 candidates has been cut in half to 10 finalists. Souders becomes Lehigh’s second finalist in the last four years following Jonathan Stumpf, in 2011 who garnered a spot on the program’s All-America First Team.
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.
Finalists were chosen by national media from the list of 20 candidates announced in February. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner. Fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award website through May 12. Fan votes will be combined with media and Division I head coaches’ votes to determine the winner. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2014 NCAA Lacrosse Championships in Baltimore May 24-26.
Four of the 10 finalists come from the Philly region: as Souders joins Stephen O’Hara (Notre Dame), John LoCascio (Villanova) and Tom Schreiber (Princeton). Others are Joe Fletcher and Justin Ward of Loyola, Troy Dennis (Detroit), Michael Ehrhardt (Maryland), Rob Emery (Virginia) and Joe Meurer (Ohio State).
Souders has continued his strong play on the field this season, leading a defense which stands second nationally allowing just 6.45 goals per game. This comes after the Mountain Hawks finished second nationally in 2012 (6.61 goals per game) and sixth in 2013 (7.94 per game). Souders has posted 30 groundballs and eight caused turnovers this season, highlighted by a career-high six groundballs to go with two caused turnovers in a triple overtime win over Villanova.
The Macungie, Pa. native owns 125 groundballs and 50 caused turnovers for his career, 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.
Souders was named a Second Team preseason All-American in the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook. Souders was selected 22nd overall by the Denver Outlaws in January’s Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft.
In the classroom, Souders has accumulated a 3.54 GPA as a Finance major. He’s 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 team captain for 2014 and was a game captain as a junior last season. He’s 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.
O’Hara has started 39 straight contests in Notre Dame’s stout defensive unit. The Fighting Irish have gone 28-11 over that time while boasting one of the nation’s top defenses. O’Hara garnered second team all-BIG EAST honors last season and was tapped as a first team preseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse heading into the 2014 campaign. In January, the Ohio Machine selected O’Hara in the sixth round (41st overall selection) of the Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft. On March 18, he was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the 18-9 triumph of No. 7 Virginia.
During his first season as a starter in 2012, O’Hara helped the Fighting Irish rank first nationally in scoring defense (6.31) and man-down defense (.892) en route to capturing the BIG EAST regular-season title and advance to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame had the country’s 10th-best goals-against average last season (8.31) against one of the top schedules in the land. The Irish finished the 2013 regular season with the top RPI in the nation and earned the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championship before advancing to the quarterfinals of that tournament.
Stephen O’Hara
The defenseman’s success isn’t limited to the lacrosse field. He boasts a 3.436 cumulative GPA as a finance major in Notre Dame’s nationally-ranked Mendoza College of Business. O’Hara, who is minoring in Chinese, was named to the BIG EAST Academic All-Star Team each of the last three seasons.
Since 2011, O’Hara has been a member of Notre Dame’s Rosenthal Leadership Academy, which develops, challenges and supports student-athletes and coaches in their continual quest to become world-class leaders in athletics, academics and life. He has taken part in numerous community service projects in the South Bend/Notre Dame community, including being a mentor for students at Dickinson Middle School and at the Perley Primary Fine Arts Academy.
O’Hara has been involved in the Playing for Peace initiative at Notre Dame to help promote awareness for lasting peace in Sudan. He has participated in community service work, athletic events and peace rallies to help with the Playing for Peace cause. The Playing for Peace initiative seeks to use the platform of sport to transcend boundaries and bring people together in the pursuit of peace, justice and human understanding. O’Hara and the Irish men’s lacrosse program have also been instrumental in bringing the initiative to the local level by doing community service work in South Bend and Chicago.
John LoCascio
Regarded as one of the best long-stick midfielders in the nation, LoCascio has had an outstanding start to his senior season and currently leads the team with 50 ground balls and 22 caused turnovers. He currently ranks 6th in the NCAA averaging 2.44 caused turnovers per game.
Additionally, LoCascio was the 2013 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, a unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team selection and a USILA Third Team All-American. LoCascio registered 85 ground balls and had 53 caused turnovers last season, finishing as the national leader with an average of 3.57 caused turnovers per game. He was also selected by the Rochester Rattlers as the 26th overall selection in the 2014 Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft.
Off the field, LoCascio maintains a 3.67 GPA in Finance with a minor in Economics from the prestigious Villanova School of Business. He has been a Dean’s List honoree six out of the seven semesters during his time on campus and his academic accomplishments include being chosen as the 2013 Philadelphia Inquirer Men’s Lacrosse Academic All-Area Performer of the Year, being named to the 2012 Philadelphia Inquirer Men’s Lacrosse Academic All-Area Team and a three-time BIG EAST Academic All-Star (2010, 2011, 2012) selection.
Tom Schreiber
One of the greatest college midfielders of all-time, Schreiber is a first-team All-America and Tewaaraton Trophy contender who was also the first overall pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft.
In addition, he has a long resume filled with leadership and service experience, including working in Uganda and the local area with underpriviledged children and on campus in several different initiatives. Click here for story.
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