Graduating defender and Nigerian-born Chinedum Azikiwe won the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) community college Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award last month, making it four years in a row a BMCC men’s soccer player has taken home the tribute. At a separate ceremony, men’s soccer coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi won the NJCAA Region XV Referee Association Sportsmanship Award for the second time.
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On the women’s side, Hostos volleyball star Berbelin Jape, from the Dominican Republic, took home the community college scholar-athlete honor. The senior college scholar-athlete praises went to Allyshia West, a Hunter College swimmer and softball player originally from Canada, and the Togo-born Kafui Kouakou, a men’s soccer player at York College.
“This class of Scholar-Athletes of the Year represents the best and brightest the CUNY Athletic Conference has to offer,” said CUNYAC Executive Director Zak Ivkovic. “While the CUNY system serves New York’s brightest individuals, the fact that our four winners all originally hail from other countries is a strong testament to the worldwide pool of students that the City University of New York draws from.”
Azikiwe came to BMCC from his native Nigeria in 2004. One of the top defenders in NJCAA Region XV, he helped his squad to two CUNYAC men’s soccer championships in as many seasons (2006 and 2007). He has received several offers from NCAA division I & II programs.
“He was a leader on the field,” said head coach Yatsuhashi, who has helped lead the BMCC men’s soccer team to four consecutive conference championships. “We often saw him mentoring our freshmen who were struggling.”
In the classroom, Azikiwe earned a 3.41 grade-point average as a business administration major. He was also active on campus, as a member of the Honor Society of Black Student Scholars, Phi Theta Kappa and Chi Alpha Epsilon honor societies, the Business Enterprise Club, the African Students Association, and the school’s Student Ambassadors program. He helped the school to organize a coat drive two winters ago, a canned food drive this entire academic year, and volunteered at his employer’s (Banana Republic) coat drive this past winter.
Azikiwe said winning the award felt good because of “all the hard work and dedication I put in to get my Associate’s degree.”
“I had my soccer responsibilities … and then all the hours I had to put into studying. Waking up in the morning, commuting to school, then going to soccer practice after my classes was a struggle because my part-time job followed, and by the time I was home, I was overly exhasted,” he said. “However, I managed to master the habit of studying in the early hours on the morning.”
Two BMCC student-athletes were among 32 honorable mentions joining Azikiwe at the ceremony: Michelle Bonna, a volleyball and basketball player who maintained a 3.36 GPA as a childhood education major, and Telma Torres, a tennis player who scored a 3.7 GPA as a political science major.
The City University of New York Athletic Conference contributed to this story. Click here for more.
