Laurie Bollig

Jewell and McDuff experienced life as student-athletes in uniquely different ways

by Laurie Bollig December 10, 2012 in Men’s Soccer

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When it came to selecting a college at which to play soccer, Tishia Jewell and Ryan McDuff couldn’t have chosen more divergent paths.

Jewell, a Satellite Beach, Fla., native, chose to stay close to home, enrolling at the University of Central Florida in Orlando – the ultimate American tourist destination. UCF boasts an enrollment of 60,000. McDuff, who grew up in Plano, Tex., decided to move 2,000 miles away, choosing to attend Brown University in Rhode Island – geographically, the country’s smallest state. Brown has an undergraduate enrollment of 6,000.

As the 2012 NCAA soccer season came to a close this fall, Jewell and McDuff had something important in common though – they were both winners of the Senior CLASS Award, recognizing them as the most outstanding NCAA Division I senior student-athletes in men’s and women’s soccer.

During her career, Jewell was recognized as an NSCAA/Adidas Collegiate Scholar All-American and UCF’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She carries a 3.75 grade point average and is pursuing two master’s degrees after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2011. As the lead volunteer at the Creative School for Children, a youth soccer coach, and a volunteer at The Haven for Children and the Women’s Center in Brevard, Jewell has recorded countless hours of community service.

During the 2012 regular season, Jewell led the team and conference in assists and captured UCF’s school record for career assists.  UCF finished the regular season with a 17-4-2 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the sixth consecutive year.  As a captain, Jewell helped UCF to its first conference tournament championship and to the team’s highest national ranking in the past two decades.

McDuff has a dual concentration in business, entrepreneurship and organizations and political science. He serves as the head teaching assistant for multiple management classes and is a peer advisor for Brown freshman students to help ease the transition from high school to college. He volunteers at Project GOAL, an organization focused on developing Rhode Island’s disadvantaged youth through after-school tutoring and soccer programs, and he works with Team Impact to match children facing life-threatening diseases with Brown athletic teams. 

As a team co-captain, McDuff led Brown’s stingy back line on a team whose shutout percentage ranked among the top in the country.  He helped his team to a record of 13-3-3 and its fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.

Although their experiences were at vastly different universities, Jewell and McDuff can both say they made the most of their four-year careers as students, athletes and community servants.