Bednarsky named Men’s Soccer’s third straight candidate for prestigious Senior CLASS Award

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  • Publication of the Senior CLASS Award (3.24.21)

BETHLEHEM, PA. – Lehigh senior midfielder Stevo Bednarsky stepped up as one of the key players on the field this shortened season. He wore the captain’s armband and was one of the leaders of the offensive. On Wednesday afternoon Bednarsky was named one of 30 candidates for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award. The Senior CLASS Award is an abbreviation for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School® and focuses on the entire athlete. He encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Bednarsky is one of two candidates selected from the Patriot League (Bucknell’s Matt Thorsheim) and Lehigh’s third straight candidate (Mark Forrest 2018, Will Smith 2019) and fourth in the past five years.

He has achieved academic success at a prestigious institution at Lehigh College of Arts and Sciences. Lehigh currently ranks 49th nationally on the list of US News and World Reports by Top National Universities.

Bednarsky achieved a cumulative average grade of 3.0 as a major in sociology / anthropology and was put on the dean’s list after the fall semester 2020.

Bednarsky enters the spring 2021 season as a two-time team captain, demonstrating leadership skills both on the field and outside the university. While at Lehigh, Bednarsky was actively involved in Lehigh’s Flight 45 program, the Lehigh Athletics Leadership Academy as part of the Emerging Leaders program that trains student and junior athletes to lead by example, build relationships with teammates, and develop credibility to get to lead their team vocally and at the same time to actively support the efforts of the current team captains.

As a co-captain, member of the program’s governing body, and a successful member of the team for the past three seasons, Bednarsky has shown a strong character through his time spent doing weight training, skill building, training, team meetings, conditioning, and learning in the film. He demonstrates his leadership skills through his actions on and off the field, which is reflected in the success of the team during his tenure.

Before Lehigh, Bednarsky was the starter and captain of his Stronghold SC club team.

Like so many of his teammates and other student athletes at the university, Bednarsky was part of many endeavors in his Lehigh community. Lehigh men’s football participates in Adopt-A-Family along with every Lehigh Athletics team. During this annual event, the Mountain Hawks offer a vacation for a disadvantaged family. Together with Lehigh fraternities, sororities, and other departments, the event itself raised up to $ 30,000.

He was a constant helper in the program’s camps and clinics, taking time out during the summer to support the coaching team and clinicians, as well as during the season the program hosts clinics before and after the weekend games.

Finally, Bednarsky has extensive experience coaching a local youth club team, Lehigh Valley United, through which he hopes to achieve his dream and begin his career as a football coach after graduation.
Bednarsky has had a stellar three-year career with the Mountain Hawks to date, starting off a strong season for newbies, where he was named defender to the All-Patriot League’s third team selection. He provided two templates while starting in all 15 of his appearances. Bednarsky played and started in 18 games as a second midfielder / defender with an assist.

He had his best season in 2019, scoring two goals with an assist in 20 starts in midfield, including a game-winning result. Bednarsky was named by the United Soccer Coaches for the first team selection of the All-Patriot League and the second team selection of the All-Atlantic region.

Finally, Bednarsky was named to the All-Patriot League tournament team in 2019 after leading the Mountain Hawks to their third Patriot League tournament title in program history and fifth NCAA tournament place.

In high school at Gil Saint Bernard’s School in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Bednarsky was an all-state selection for First Team and Skylands Conference Player of the Year. He led his team to a title in New Jersey in 2016.

The candidate class will be narrowed down to 10 finalists in April, and those 10 names will be put on the official ballot. The ballot papers are distributed to the media, coaches and fans via a nationwide voting system, who select the candidate who best represents excellence in the four categories of community, classroom, character and competition.

The winners of the Senior CLASS Award will be announced during the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Cup Championships in May 2021.

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