[ad_1]
Educational focus
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FL – Florida Tech is proud to announce the establishment of the Eldridge and Navarretta Scholarship Endowment, which, once endowed, will support undergraduate-athletes in men’s soccer.
The fund is named after pioneering Florida Tech football coach J. Michael Eldridge and Peter Navarretta each spent a decade or more playing football at Florida Tech and laid the foundation for today’s success.
When the scholarships are awarded, they are selected by a three-member selection committee made up of the university’s athletic director, head football coach and assistant football coach. The recipient must be a full-time male soccer player in good academic standing with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.
Eldridge was a longtime educator and football coach when he was hired as Florida Tech’s head coach in 1974. He brought credibility, respect and coaching expertise to the Melbourne campus, later earning American Soccer Federation certification and serving two terms as president of the Florida Intercollegiate Soccer Coaches Association.
Under his leadership, Florida Tech was ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division II South Region from 1978 to 1982. His legacy at Florida Tech includes an 89-43-22 win/loss record.
The players formed strong bonds and lifelong friendships as Eldridge led them to many impressive victories. “I’m still proud of all the athletes who worked so hard to achieve such a result,” he recalled recently.
In the early 1980s, still working as a part-time football coach, Eldridge moved to North Carolina after a promotion in his financial planning career. Eldridge, a certified financial planner, He had a successful 31-year career before retiring in 2015. Even after the move, he continued to train.
In the year In 1971, Navarretta, an award-winning collegiate football player, was named director of student affairs at Florida Tech’s Cocoa Beach/Port Canaveral campus. Impressed by all that the campus had to offer, but realizing that there were no athletics, he left and started a football team. That same year, when the school, faculty and students moved to Jensen Beach, so did the football team.
The football team grew up in Jensen Beach. Students and players around the world are truly connected. “They became brothers and the community was like a family,” Navarreta said recently. They spread the football gospel by hosting clinics for local youth, which sparked interest across the region.
“The players at the small Jensen Beach campus were true fans of the sport of soccer and shared that with the community,” he recalled.
Like Eldridge, Navarretta was drawn to the financial world, and in 1983 he accepted a position as a financial consultant at EF Hutton. Forty years later, he continues to work in the field.
Those interested in contributing to the scholarship fund are encouraged to consider making a gift to the endowment.
Click here for Brevard County news
[ad_2]
Source link
