Last Wednesday, UCF announced that women’s senior goalkeeper, Aline Reis, was named a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.
The award is for NCAA Division I seniors who showcase excellence in all four areas – classroom, community, character and competition.
The finalists were narrowed down from a list of 30 candidates that was announced in August.
Reis was named to the NSCAA All-America Second Team as a freshman at UCF and hasn’t stopped gaining accolades since. She is a perennial member of the all Conference-USA team. This season, she was voted to the preseason All-C-USA team, and named MVP of the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic. Reis is happy to see that she is getting recognized for something else besides soccer.
“It’s important that people recognize not only what you do on the field, but also off the field like with the community and also making sure that your academics are going well,” Reis, who has a 3.62 GPA, said.
“Because at the end of the day, we are student athletes, and yes, we need to perform well, but we also need to take care of the academics. It was a great honor.”
Reis is scheduled to graduate in December with a bachelors degree in sports and fitness. Although soccer is a major part of her life, and always has been, Reis knows that she will make good use of her education after her soccer career.
“As much as I love soccer, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life, and we need to think about the future and what’s next,” Reis said. “The academics – like having a good education and knowing what you are studying. Those are all things that I’m going to use afterwards, and that’s what’s important.”
In her spare time, Reis likes to visit the Florida Hospital’s Children Unit to spend time with children who are recovering from illnesses. She has also participated in relay for life in order to raise money for cancer research.
Whenever Reis gets a chance to go back to her hometown of Campinas, Brazil, she helps coach the game of soccer to less fortunate children.
UCF women’s soccer head coach Amanda Cromwell has been coaching soccer at UCF for 13 years and said she has never coached anybody like Reis before.
“She works harder than anyone we’ve had here in my 13 years, and is willing to sacrifice and put it all on the line,” said Cromwell, who has led UCF to nine NCAA tournament appearances.
“She’s done it with injuries and having surgeries and coming back. She doesn’t complain. She just gets it all done.”
Cromwell also emphasized that what sets Reis apart from everyone else is her work ethic and selfless attitude.
“I just think that she is beyond herself, and she is so about the we instead of me. She has that mentality,” Cromwell said. “I think that if you look at not only the play on the field, but what she does off the field, she is the best candidate that they have left.”
Fan voting accounts for one-third of the total, while the remaining two-thirds is determined by NCAA coaches and national media. You can vote for Reis once per day until November 14 here to help her win the award. The winner will be announced in late November.
