{"id":73917,"date":"2016-10-09T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=73917"},"modified":"2016-10-07T19:14:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T23:14:28","slug":"colgates-oneill-announced-as-candidate-for-prestigious-senior-class-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=73917","title":{"rendered":"Colgate’s O\u2019Neill Announced as Candidate for Prestigious Senior CLASS Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ColgateRaiders\"<\/a>Colgate men\u2019s soccer midfielder Colin O\u2019Neill has been named as one of 30 men’s soccer candidates for the 2016 Senior CLASS Award, the organization announced Friday<\/span>. An acronym for “Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School”, the Senior CLASS Award recognizes Division I seniors who have notable achievements in four areas of excellence \u2013 community, classroom, character and competition.<\/p>\n

The candidate class will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those ten 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 candidate who best exemplifies the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the NCAA Men’s College Cup championship in December.<\/p>\n

COMPETITION<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2016 preseason All-Patriot League pick, O\u2019Neill has put together a strong on-field resume. He has guided his team to a 14-8-2 record and a 2015 regular-season Patriot League championship since taking over as a co-captain during his junior campaign. The Raiders are off to a 7-3 start in 2016 and have shut out their opponents in all six of their seven wins this season.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill was awarded second team All-Patriot League honors following a junior campaign in which he started all 18 games he appeared in. His presence in the strong Colgate midfield helped guide the Raiders to a 10-7-2 overall mark and 7-2-0 clip in Patriot League play as Colgate earned the regular-season title. His performance in the postseason earned him a spot on the Patriot League All-Tournament team. O\u2019Neill got a starting nod in 20 games in his freshman and sophomore seasons.<\/p>\n

CLASSROOM<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill, a political science major with a history minor, is on track to graduate in May 2017. He holds a strong 3.5 grade point average in his major and is a two-time Raider Academic Honor Roll member. He\u2019s landed on Dean\u2019s List twice during his academic career and was awarded the Class of 1964 Endowed Scholarship in both the spring of 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has future career aspirations within the politics and public policy fields. For the last two summers he has held internships with U.S. Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party of Virginia at campaign headquarters. This past summer while working at the Democratic Party of Virginia campaign headquarters, O\u2019Neill worked for Senior Advisor Pete Kavanaugh and Deputy Political Director Alice Tong as a campaign management and political intern where he conducted statistical research, monitored media coverage and analyzed public opinion polls. In the summer of 2015, O\u2019Neill developed and presented briefs to prepare Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick and his staff on different bills and resolutions that were being voted on in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Following life as a student-athlete, O\u2019Neill aims to find a job that allows him to engage with domestic and foreign policy at a high level. He wants to be at the forefront of the most divisive issues in the country and gain a better understanding of how they fit into the public policy process.<\/p>\n

CHARACTER<\/strong><\/p>\n

A two-time team captain, O\u2019Neill leads the Colgate midfield as both a vocal leader and leader by example. He helped lead the Raiders to a regular-season Patriot League championship in 2015 and has guided the team to a 7-3 start to the 2016 season.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill is one of four Colgate men\u2019s soccer players to be a member the Raiders\u2019 Emerging Leaders Academy. He attends biweekly classes and workshops to enhance the development of leadership skills and he is responsible for educating both his teammates and coaches on the topics of discussion.<\/p>\n

Colgate head coach Erik Ronning describes O\u2019Neill as, \u201ca selfless leader who is a great person that works hard in every aspect of his life. He represents this institution and program better than anyone. He\u2019s really helped perpetuate the strong culture of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMMUNITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has utilized his status as a Colgate student-athlete to make an impact within the local community. He is a member of Colgate\u2019s Adopt-a-Classroom initiative in which he and the Raiders mentor a class of second graders once a month. In addition to serving as a positive role model to young students, the initiative also helps Colgate foster a strong campus-community relationship.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Adopt-A-Classroom program, O\u2019Neill is also a coach at the Junior Raider Soccer Academy. He engages with local children between the ages of seven and ten by teaching them the fundamentals of soccer through basic drills and games to improve their skills and enhance their understanding of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colgate men\u2019s soccer midfielder Colin O\u2019Neill has been named as one of 30 men’s soccer candidates for the 2016 Senior CLASS Award, the organization announced Friday. An acronym for “Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School”, the Senior CLASS Award recognizes Division I seniors who have notable achievements in four areas of excellence \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jed","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ColgateRaiders.jpg?fit=1365%2C1024&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}