By: Seth Stogsdill, Assistant Director of Athletics Communications
ATLANTA - 2022 Centre graduate
Cameron Zak has been named the winner of the 2021-22 Jacaruso Enterprises Southern Athletic Association Woman of the Year award, the conference office announced. The SAA Woman of the Year is the highest honor the league bestows for a female student-athlete.
"Cameron was a special player, and an exceptional student-athlete – just the kind of person you want to hold up for future generations of girls and young women to model," said Director of Athletics Brad Fields. "As an elite player on one of the most dominant teams in SAA history, her impact was immeasurable. And for Centre Women's Soccer to have produced back-to-back SAA Women of the Year, I believe that speaks volumes about the program itself."
Centre women's soccer has enjoyed tremendous success since the formation of the Southern Athletic Association in 2012. During that time,
Cameron Zak is on the short list of the best players Centre has had during the SAA era, and on an even shorter list of the best defensive players in program history.
"She reinvented how the Center back position should be played at Centre," said Centre women's soccer head coach Jay Hoffman. "Her ability to get forward off the dribble, ability to hit a long ball, and her ability to defend will always be remembered and talked about for years to come."
In her four years at Centre, Zak started every game in which she was available to play, 74 in total. In those games, the record of the Colonels was 67-4-3, with one of the losses coming against Division I Western Kentucky.
Zak is a three-time All-SAA First Team Honoree, earning the awards in her rookie, junior and senior seasons. She won Newcomer of the Year honors in 2018 and earned the league's Defensive Player of the Year award in each of her last two seasons.
In 2019, Zak was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-South Atlantic Region Second Team. Following a pandemic-shortened junior season, Zak finished her career with an All-American senior year, earning a spot on both the United Soccer Coaches and D3Soccer.com All-American squads. Zak became the ninth Centre player and fourth center back to receive All-American recognition.
In three full seasons with the Colonels, Zak anchored a back line that surrendered a ridiculous 0.35 goals-against average. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Zak, Centre finished in the top ten in goals allowed per game in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Zak's game was not limited to stalwart defensive play, as she finished her career with 11 goals and five assists, with four of the scoring tallies as game winners. She also routinely was among the team leaders in minutes played, including a team high 895 minutes in the shortened spring season of 2021.
In the classroom, Zak graduated with a degree in data science, carrying a grade-point average of 3.717, and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2020.
Zak has also been a pillar in the community, both at Centre and in her native Michigan. Zak has worked with the Centre Soccer Clinics, Camp Horsin' Around, Wilderness Trace Child Development Center, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Bluegrass, and has also served as an emergency room intern at McLaren Northern Hospital in Petoskey, Mich.
"We have always been taught that when you leave a place you always want to make sure you leave it better than you found it," Hoffman added. "Cameron did that and more."
This marks the sixth consecutive year that a Centre student-athlete has won the Man or Woman of the Year honors from the SAA. Dean's picture joins Mason Paas (Men's Lacrosse, 2016-17), Noah Martin (Men's Swimming, 2017-18), Annie Rodenfels (Women's Cross Country/Track, 2018-19), Cal Lewellyn (Football, 2019-20) and Kristin Dean (Women's Soccer, 2020-21) in the hallway by the Champions Room in Sutcliffe Hall.
