Cy Woods, Cy Lakes Girls' Soccer Teams Win Team Academic Award
By Holly Neighbors, Cypress Woods HS
The Cypress Woods and Cypress Lakes high school girls’ soccer teams won the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award.
To qualify for the award, the team required a minimum GPA of 3.25 for the entire academic year. The team GPA is determined by adding every player’s GPA, then dividing by the number of players.
The Cypress Woods 2021-2022 team had previously earned academic all-state and academic all-district in honors, so when Amy Trocquet, Cypress Woods head girls’ soccer coach, found out about the Team Academic Award, she knew it was a perfect fit.
“I knew right off the bat that they were going to qualify for it,” Trocquet said. “This is really cool to get them recognized for this.”
The Cypress Lakes High School girls’ soccer team joined Cypress Woods High School in winning the United Soccer The Cypress Woods athletic department sets students’ education as a top priority. If a student needs to attend tutorials to succeed in a class, coaches ensures they attend - even if that means giving up a game or practice in its place.
“We always offer support,” Trocquet said. “We let them know that academics comes first, so if there’s ever a conflict with soccer and academics, whether it’s tutoring, a project or a National Honor Society meeting, we always compromise and make sure you are able to take care of the academics first.”
Balancing academics and athletics can create many obstacles for students, but Trocquet knew her team was up for the challenge.
“I think it’s something that, just knowing how competitive my girls are, they are also that competitive off the field, which is why they are so successful,” Trocquet said.
Cypress Woods and the surrounding community emphasizes academic rigor and success, and the coaches guide and support their athletes along that path.
“I think it’s pretty well known within our campus and community that Woods puts a very big emphasis on education,” Trocquet said. “I feel like it’s just part of our culture on our campus. It’s obviously something that in our athletics department we emphasize with all of our teams, so it’s always at the forefront of what we do.”
Casey Blades, Cypress Lakes head girls’ soccer coach, echoed Trocquet’s sentiments on putting academics ahead of soccer.
“As coaches, we always put a heavy focus on striving for academic excellence,” Blades said. “Especially last year as many students struggled with adjusting back to normal routines, I am exceptionally proud of the soccer girls’ persistent effort to achieve greatness in the classroom. In addition to this award, we also had a program high number of student athletes making honor roll and had zero failures during our season.”
