BAY CITY, Mich. – Roosevelt senior defender Gabriel Koenig was named the Lakers' first recipient of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's Commissioner's Award on Friday morning.

Koenig has been an integral member of the Lakers for the past three seasons and capped off his final year with first-team All-GLIAC honors in 2024. The heartbeat of the team as the Lakers' captain, the Germany native helped lead Roosevelt to a share of the conference title in its first season in the league. He played all but four minutes for the Lakers this season and was a major reason Roosevelt kept five clean sheets over the final eight matches of the season to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the conference tournament and a No. 20 national ranking.

The marketing major finished the fall semester with a 3.94 grade point average and was voted a second-team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators in December. The two-time Academic All-District performer has been named to the Dean's List all seven semesters at Roosevelt, and is a member of the Roosevelt University Investment Club and the National Society of Leadership.

"Gabriel's professionalism and work ethic both on and off the field have been exemplary, and I am absolutely delighted to see him receive this recognition," Roosevelt men's soccer coach Paddy Hoepp said. "He embodies everything we strive for in our program – a student-athlete who performs at the highest level in competition and in the classroom. I couldn't be more proud of him and the example he sets for our team and the entire Roosevelt University community."

The award honors six male and six female student-athletes each season (fall, winter and spring) who succeeded both on and off the field. All nominees were starters or key reserves for their team, have been at the university for at least four semesters and maintained at least a 3.5 GPA. Each of the 11 GLIAC schools were given one vote for the six male and six female winners.

All of the 18 winners this academic year will be eligible in the spring to be named the GLIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The faculty athletics representatives from each school will have one vote for each gender's recipient.