Galla, Pederson, & Yokie Named as Daktronics Scholar-Athletes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) released the 2023 Daktronics men's Soccer Scholar-Athletes on Friday.

"Balancing a busy game and practice schedule is difficult in college then adding a tough academic workload makes it even harder to manage, I am happy for all the student athletes who earned scholar athlete awards," Head Coach Thomas Goodman said.

The Waldorf men's soccer team had three athletes named as NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athletes for their efforts on the field and in the classroom: Jose Galla (SR/Chico, CA), Kyle Pederson (SO/Ankeny, IA), and Mohamed Yokie (SR/Kenema, Sierra Leone).

Goodman added, "At Waldorf, we pride our academic performance as much as our on field and I believe it's not a coincidence that our scholar athletes are also some of the stronger players on the field as well as captains."

The 2023 list features 1,032 student-athletes who achieved at least a 3.5 cumulative grade point average (GPA) at their institution. In order to be nominated by an institution's head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, must appear on the eligibility certificate for the sport and have attended one full year at said institution.