Five All-America Scholar Athletes Honored from Men's Soccer

South Euclid, OH – December 1, 2004 - It was quite a year for the Notre Dame College men's soccer team in 2004 and the team's success has kept on growing since the season concluded almost one month ago. This week's announcement of the NAIA-Daktronics All-America Scholar Athletes adds to the success of the team because for the first time in the program's four-year history, five players received the prestigious honor.

Senior Juha-Pekka Burman (Espoo, Finland - Management), senior Nick DePompei (Bedford, Ohio - Education), senior Matt Embacher (Suffield, Ohio - Marketing), junior Dave Howson (Rochdale, England - Education) and senior Kenneth Searight (Wellington, Ohio - Education) all received the honor after fulfilling the necessary requirements.

Each of the men had a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.50 on a 4.0 scale and all are at least juniors in academic standing. Ninety-five NAIA institutions were represented with this year's awards and Notre Dame College was the only school to have five honorees.

"To have five players honored as NAIA All-America Scholar Athletes is proof positive that NDC's soccer program is achieving excellence in the classroom, as well as on the field of play," said head coach Mac McBride.

"They have managed to lift another conference championship, take a team into the national rankings and excel in the classroom."

"All of the recipients of this award exemplify what being a college athlete is all about. I am very, very proud of all of them," said McBride.

Burman, Embacher and Searight each received the honor in 2003.

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