Aug. 20, 2010
Overland Park, Kans. - Fordham University senior midfielder Katie McDermott (Tucson, Ariz./Catalina Foothills) was named as one of 30 candidates for this year's Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for women's soccer, it was announced earlier this week. She is the second Fordham athlete to be listed as a Senior CLASS Award candidate, joining Kevin Meyer in 2006 from men's soccer.
McDermott was also one of four Atlantic 10 players listed for the award, as she joined Dayton's Kelly Blumenschein and Tommy Watkins (men's soccer) and Charlotte's Megan Minnix.
Each of the 30 candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 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 male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The winner will be announced at the Women's College Cup.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.
In the classroom, McDermott currently stands with a 3.865 GPA, holding the highest GPA on the team. She is majoring in Psychology, and is scheduled to graduate this spring.
After being a National Merit Scholar in high school, McDermott has continued to be an outstanding student. She has been a member of the Fordham College Dean's List and the Atlantic 10's Commissioner's honor roll in each of her three years at Rose Hill, while also being honored each of those years at the Athletic Department's "Breakfast for Champions", which acknowledges all Fordham student-athletes with a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
As far as plans for the future, McDermott would like to get a joint degree, either a JD/PhD in psychology or a joint PhD in psychology and social policy. Whether that happens immediately after her undergraduate career remains to be seen, and depends on a number of factors.
Ideally, McDermott would love to merge her academic interest in social psychology with her public service interest in women's rights and child welfare. In particular, she hopes to continue fighting human trafficking, an issue that disproportionately affects women and children. To that end, she will be working closely with Media 4 Humanity and the UN for as long as she is based in New York, and hopefully with other anti-trafficking organizations in the future.
For character, McDermott is a two-year captain, and a four-year leader on the team, which is rare to find that level of maturity in a young player. She is a natural leader by example, training 100% everyday and consistently running until the final whistle blows. She has taken her leadership to a new level by vocally inspiring the team, organizing team building events, and being a close mentor to the underclassman. She has great awareness about the "team" concept and tries to get the best out of everyone every day to accomplish our team goal.
McDermott also commands great respect from her coaches, Fordham administrators, and opponents, as opposing coaches have made her an All-Atlantic 10 selection (2007-09) in each of her first three years, and a preseason All-Conference selection three times as well (2008-10).
In the community, McDermott has been involved with a number of activities in her three plus years at Fordham University. She has volunteered at the Special Olympics Regional Events held at Fordham, and administered a 3-on-3 Charity Soccer Tournament to support St. Jude Children's Hospital this past spring. She currently volunteers with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which deals with women's rights, pregnant women's rights, and mother's rights.
She is also an intern with the Planned Parenthood of New York City Activist Council. This group is the political action, lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood, as opposed to the clinical or educational prongs.
McDermott is the Executive Assistant and Head Intern at Media 4 Humanity, a non-profit organization based in New York City, that seeks to raise eradicate child slavery and human trafficking within the United States by raising awareness, empowering at risk youth, rescuing victims of human trafficking and promoting legislation to stop human trafficking.
She is also a research assistant on the Youth Experiences Study, which examines how New York City school children's race, ethnicity, self-concept and experiences with racism and discrimination affect their overall mental health and school performance. She will continue to work with the Youth Experiences Study during the upcoming year and, in addition to her contributions to the project as a research assistant, Katie will be using this research data to write her honors thesis in psychology.
As a starting defensive midfielder from day one, McDermott has become one of the most decorated women's soccer players in team history.
She has earned All-Atlantic 10 honors following each of her three seasons, capturing Second Team honors in 2007 and 2008, while earning First Team honors in 2009. In her freshman season, she was also an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team selection and earned All-Northeast Region accolades from NSCAA (Third Team) and Soccerbuzz.com (Second Team).
Prior to the season, McDermott has also been selected to the preseason All-Conference team, entering her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons.
For her career, she has 10 goals and eight assists to her credit for 28 points, which includes three career game-winning goals, helping Fordham to the Atlantic 10 Championship game in 2007, and the Atlantic 10 semifinals in 2008 and 2009. For her efforts in the 2009 tournament, Katie was selected to the Atlantic 10 All-Championship team.
McDermott will once again serve as team captain in 2010, after having the same title in 2009.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Lowe's 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 nominations for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for soccer are traditionally strong in community service and academic excellence," said Tom Lamb, Lowe's senior vice president of marketing. "This year's candidate class reflects the strong sense of obligation these student-athletes have to their communities, their universities and their teammates and we are proud to recognize them for their excellence."
The women's soccer candidate section of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award site can be found at www.seniorCLASSaward.com. McDermott's player card can also be found on the site by clicking here.
