Emily Gary, 18, is a varsity soccer player for the Green Valley High School Gators. The Henderson senior was recently named to the 2010-11 Scholar All-Western Region team by Adidas and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, an honor reserved for players who have excelled both on and off the field.
Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 | 11:35 a.m.
Emily Gary, 18, poses with her varsity soccer coach Roy Snyder of the Green Valley High School Gators. The Henderson senior was recently named to the 2010-11 Scholar All-Western Region team by Adidas and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, an honor reserved for players who have excelled both on and off the field.
Emily Gary is proof that brain and brawn can co-exist on and off the field.
The Green Valley High School senior was recently named to the 2010-11 Scholar All-Western Region team, an honor reserved for soccer players who excel in both academics and athletics.
Gary, an 18-year-old midfield defender for the Gators girls' varsity team, is one of 18 athletes to win the award in the region, and the only one from Nevada.
“Emily is a tremendous player who works incredibly hard on the field, but she also gets it done in the classroom,” said Roy Snyder, Gary’s soccer coach.
The National Soccer Coaches Association of America – the largest governing body for high school soccer, with 33,000 member soccer coaches – partnered with Adidas to recognize this year’s scholar-athletes.
Contenders were nominated by their coaches in October and evaluated by a regional awards committee. Players had to have made a substantial impact on the field, and have a 4.0 or higher weighted GPA, Synder said.
“You have to be an outstanding player, and you have to have high grades,” he said. “That’s a really difficult thing to do. You go to school all day, go to practice for two to three hours and then go back home to do homework.”
“It’s sometimes hard to not just watch TV when I get home,” Gary said. “It feels good to get recognized.”
Gary takes three Advanced Placement classes – calculus, physics and English literature – and received all A’s last semester.
“I’m pretty much an A student,” she said. “I’ve always been pretty good at school.”
But just as the award proclaims, Gary is also a stellar soccer player, having been named to her school’s varsity team when she was just a sophomore.
In 12 games, the Gators' defense has only given up five goals and nine of the games were shutouts. Gary’s contributions have led her team to a 12-5-1 record, first in league play.
“Our goalkeeper is good, but a lot of it is (Gary’s) work,” Snyder, 28, said. “She is one of the brightest and most well-rounded students I’ve coached.”
Gary’s achievements in and out of the classroom have earned her several college offers. Arizona State University extended her a $14,000-a-year scholarship and UNR offered her its full-ride Presidential Scholarship.
Gary, who began playing soccer when she was 6 years old, doesn't plan to play collegiate soccer, focusing instead on her academic passion: being an applied math major.
“Not many people enjoy math and science, but it comes easily to me,” she said, adding she hopes to parlay her degree into an engineering career.
But when the number crunching becomes too much, Gary will always know where to turn.
“When I’m playing soccer, it’s always fun,” she said. “It’s a great stress reliever.”
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