Baker's Dozen Awards Bestowed On Bruins

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INDIANAPOLIS — In a soccer game, using twelve players and a coach will result in someone getting a yellow card. In an award announcement, however, having twelve players plus a coach results in a press release.  The latter is the camp in which Bethany finds itself after today's announcement of all-district and academic all-state awards by the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association.

Senior goalkeeper Jeff Yoder and senior midfielder Femi Hollinger-Janzen were named first-team all-District 1 players by the coaches association. District 1 stretches from Elkhart County west to the Illinois state line, going as far south as Oregon-Davis and LaVille. As first-team selections, Hollinger-Janzen and Yoder will represent the district in the ISCA college showcase on Nov. 19 and 20 at Indianapolis North Central High School.

The two players will be joined on the district 1 team by their head coach once again, as boys soccer coach Hank Willems was named District 1 private-school coach of the year and will coach the district team in that showcase. In a statement released by the school, Willems touted the Bruin selections as representatives of the team, saying "Having players selected from both the offense and defense represents the many quality players we have on both sides of the ball. Defensive players are often overlooked, so to have a goalkeeper selected is an acknowledgement of our entire defensive unit."

As members of the district's first and second teams, Yoder and Hollinger-Janzen will be eligible for all-state consideration; in addition, by virtue of his coach-of-the-year award, Willems will appear on the ballot for the state coach of the year award. Those awards will be announced at the ISCA awards banquet on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 20 in Indianapolis.

A total of ten Bruins were also announced as recipients of the ISCA All-Academic Award, given to players who are varsity contributors and have grade-point averages above 3.6 through three years or 3.7 through two. Recipients from the boys team include seniors Yoder and Jared Nussbaum along with juniors Lucas Morgan and Andrew Snyder. Six members of the girls team received all-academic awards: seniors Emma Caskey, Gina Gautsche, Malaina Weldy and Paige Wheeler, joined by juniors Natalie Thorne and Maddie Gerig.