Men’s soccer captain named to Academic All-America team

Rider University senior Eric Elgin, the captain of the men’s soccer team, has been named to the Capital One Academic All-America Division I Third Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA).

Elgin is the third Rider athlete in the last three years to earn this award and the first Rider male athlete to be so honored since 1995.

"This is a great honor and I am really happy for Elgin,” says Rider head soccer coach Charlie Inverso. “It has been a tough week for him because he lost his grandfather who he was very close to just a few days ago.”

A center back from Mechanicsburg, Pa., Elgin is a veteran of 65 games and has started 56 games for Rider, including every game this season, leading the Broncs to their most wins in 10 years.

An accounting major with a 3.97 cumulative grade point average, Elgin has helped Rider lower its goals against average from 2.44 last year to 1.28 this year. 

Playing almost every minute of every game, the three-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Academic team member has received high praise from his head coach. 

“In my 25-plus years coaching on the college level, Elgin is the best leader I have ever had,” says Inverso, who has seen over 40 of his former players become college or high school coaches. 

The only senior on the young Rider squad, Elgin leads through example on and off the field. Off the field, Elgin is the President of the Catholic Campus Ministry at Rider. "He's a devout Christian," Inverso says. "Elgin epitomizes what a college athlete should be. A top student, a consummate teammate and a guy who steadily improved each year as a player.”

As the main defender on the field, he led Rider to the fourth fewest goals allowed in the 11-team MAAC.

“He is an old school college athlete who despite his squeaky clean image is a lot of fun to be around,” Inverso says. “They don't make them like Elgin anymore. He is one in a billion."