Clare Shea

Classroom

At the United States Military Academy, the classroom is made up of three pillars to achieve leadership excellence: academic, physical and military. Clare Shea excels across all pillars at the Academy and is recognized by not only her teammates, but by the academy’s leadership for her accomplishments. Academically, Shea boasts a 3.802 grade-point average and ranks in the top 10 percent of her class. For this feat, she garnered the Distinguished Cadet Award, which reflects the achievement of a term quality point average across all three pillars of 3.67 or higher for two consecutive semesters.

Character

Notes from Head Coach Marcia McDermott: “Clare Shea is a tremendous example of high character and selfless leadership. She has had an excellent career on the soccer field starting all four years in the midfield, being recognized repeatedly by the league for her talent, and this season she has been selected as a team captain by her teammates. She is a very hard worker and often puts in extra time before and after training. Her leadership is thoughtful and purposeful. She demonstrates high integrity in all that she does and is a thoughtful team leader. The team has adopted a young cancer survivor, and Clare has taken the lead in making her feel a true part of our team. She demonstrates high standards in the classroom and has been consistently recognized for it. As a reflection of her excellent leadership and high character, the athletic department selected her to a leadership role among all the various team captains. In short, Clare Shea embodies all the qualities of a student-athlete of the highest character.”

Community

Cadets partake in many events that involve the community and exemplify selfless service. The biggest thing Shea has been working on lately is keeping Mya Bonilla involved with the team. As a team Army adopted Mya from Friends of Jaclyn in the spring of 2016. Since then, Shea has taken the lead on organizing team events with Mya and has become close with Mya’s family.

In addition to the work she does with Mya, Shea serves as the Brigade Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Chair in the Chain of Command for the Corps of Cadets. She acts as the head of the Division I Team Captains and is the NCAA representative for Army. Some of her duties include being the liaison between the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Corps of Cadets, USCC and each of the teams. She advises team captains and coaches on areas of concern and issues that need to be addressed, specifically the enforcement of all regulation and standards of conduct for Corps Squad teams. Shea also coordinates and conducts the quarterly SAAC meetings where student-athletes respond to proposed conference and NCAA legislation.

Shea has also made several outreach trips to NYC schools with her company to teach inner-city students about ethics, school and sports. Additionally, Shea organized outreach events with the women’s soccer team with Unified Sports, where they play soccer with special needs children of the West Point Community. The children are scheduled to walk out with the team for pregame lineups on Oct. 1 against Loyola.

Competition

Army will rely heavily on senior midfielder Clare Shea this season after she led the team with four goals, five assists and 13 points. Shea was named to the All-Patriot League First Team in 2016, as well as earning a spot on the Academic All-Patriot League squad. This was Shea’s second all-league honor as she landed on the third team as a freshman. Last year was the first season she started in all of the team’s games, while posting career-highs across all three offensive categories. Throughout her four years at West Point, Shea has contributed nine goals and 10 assists for 28 points, while getting off 130 shots.