SF State student-athletes earn 46 All-Conference Academic Honors, three more earn All-District honor

Three Gators were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team and 46 SF State student-athletes earned All-California Collegiate Athletic Association Academic Honors for the Fall 2022 semester. 

The Gators tied for the third most athletes to earn the honor, announced on Feb. 16, among the 12 schools in the conference. To qualify for the honor, athletes must be competing in a sport and be at least a sophomore while earning a 3.3 GPA or higher.  

Women’s basketball players Jolene Armendariz and Muirae Gomez and men’s basketball player Alex Gilat earned the all-district honors on Feb. 21 for their production in both academics and athletics this semester. 

Gilat, a sophomore guard majoring in business from Ascot, England, always dreamed of playing basketball in the United States and has been able to live out that dream for the last two years. Upon joining SF State, Gilat made it a goal of his to earn the Academic All-District team honor. 

“When I first got it, it felt great,” Gilat said. “But at the same time, I wasn’t as satisfied as I thought I would be because I wanted to do more on the court this year. But being recognized for anything at this level is an achievement. So I’m definitely honored to be named all-district.”

Gomez, a senior forward majoring in psychology from Sacramento, was surprised to be honored with the award. She said that nothing other than the top grade or best outcome is satisfactory to her. 

Balancing the workload can be challenging for student-athletes, with practices, workouts, homework, work and social life all requiring attention, but for Gomez, the key to balancing everything is with a set schedule to guide her through each week. 

Gomez said consistency makes managing everything less of a challenge.

“It isn’t really hard because I’m great with schedules,” Gomez said. “As long as I have a consistent schedule, I know I’m gonna be fine. I can figure out a time to put aside for homework, so balancing it was never a struggle.” 

Gilat, however, said it can be very difficult to find the balance and sometimes he can feel overwhelmed by all the responsibilities. 

“It’s very difficult, I don’t really have too much time for anything else,” Gilat said. “I devote practically all my time to school and basketball and I don’t have much of a social life. My social life consists of spending time with my teammates in the locker room and with my girlfriend. So that’s practically all I do.” 

In addition to the academic success of the athletes, they were productive on the court as well. Armendariz was the second-leading scorer on the Gators this season with 11.2 points per game and led the team with 7.6 rebounds per game. Gomez was tied for third in scoring, with 8.9 points per game and tied for the third most rebounds per game at 4.5. 

Gilat averaged 2.4 points and 1 rebound per game for the men’s basketball team this season. 

The 46 athletes named to the all-conference teams spanned five teams, with 17 of them from women’s soccer, nine from volleyball, nine from men’s soccer, six from men’s cross country and five from women’s cross country. 

Head Volleyball Coach Matt Hoffman takes the recruiting process seriously and considers everything when bringing players on board. 

“I’m always proud of the fact that they get good grades and our team GPA is high,” Hoffman said. “It’s a testament to how hard they work. We try to prioritize finding the people who value working hard in the classroom and in the gym. It’s always very impressive to see them be able to put their best foot forward in both.” 

Head Women’s Soccer Coach John DeMartini said any player on his team below a 3.5 GPA is required to attend six hours of study hall every week until they are above the threshold. He wants to compete against every team at the university for the highest team GPA. 

“A lot of these kids aren’t going to play professionally,” DeMartini said. “But they are going out in the workforce. They can multitask with the best on the planet. They go to class, most of them work and they compete. They excel in every phase of their life. So it’s about them learning that every piece fits, it’s all integrated, and you can be excellent at all of them.”