During his time at Lebanon Valley College, Nate Gibbons ’18 excelled inside the classroom and on the soccer field to become one of LVC men’s soccer’s most decorated players last decade. 

After being accepted to LVC, Gibbons earned the college’s prestigious Allwein Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship that’s awarded to select students’ four undergraduate years. Before college, Gibbons led Urbana High School to the 2013 Maryland State Title, and was named Second-Team Frederick News Post All-Area Team and graduated with the highest honors.

The physics and mathematics major anchored LVC’s defense in his final two seasons and led the Flying Dutchmen to back-to-back Division III ECAC Championships. In 2016, he started all 22 games on defense and helped LVC record nine shutout victories. Thanks to his efforts on the pitch and in the classroom, Gibbons was named a 2016 Academic All-American and a 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-District recipient. He landed on the All-MAC Commonwealth Second Team, was tabbed MAC Academic All-Conference, and was named to the MAC’s Fall Academic Honor Roll.

2017 was another magical year for Gibbons and LVC’s Men’s Soccer squad. The Frederick, Md. native again started every game he appeared in helped the Dutchmen capture their second consecutive ECAC Title. LVC again recorded nine shutouts and allowed just 10.6 shots per game. Gibbons was again named a CoSIDA Academic All-American and Academic All-District, as well as Academic All-MAC. He finished with a 3.97 overall GPA and earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

You were awarded the prestigious Allwein Scholarship at LVC. What was that process like?

I remember at the time I was making my decision, it was definitely a surprise, but this is really what kickstarted my whole LVC career from the very beginning. I truly don’t think I would’ve ended up at LVC otherwise. Being able to go to the school I wanted to with that added bit of financial security was huge, and it’s continuing to have a big impact on me now and will for the next several years. It was an incredible honor, and I hope to keep being able to prove I was a worthwhile investment. 

How were you able to balance being a physics/mathematics major and playing soccer?

I think most of it came down to finding a routine that worked for me. It really does become a grind, going from class to homework to training, gamedays to recovery days, lifts and back to class. Some semesters are harder than others, for school or for soccer, and of course things change during the offseason, but once I got the ball rolling on a good routine I was really able to embrace that daily grind, and luckily that led to good success for me and the team on and off the field. 

You were a two-time ECAC Champ. Talk about your run in 2016 and then how you were able to defend the crown in 2017.

I think in 2016 it was really about doing something we hadn’t done before as a program, trying to put LVC Men’s Soccer back on the national map. Getting to play the whole tournament at home and then ultimately winning it really just validated all the effort that had been put into the entire program up to that point. It was just a massive moment for everyone. Then in 2017, we just had to try and build on that momentum. I think winning it for the second year in a row really cemented the statement we made the year before. Over both years we were able to beat eight teams from the region that we don’t play against regularly, and I think that helped prove that our program could stand up against anyone. I’ll add that not many collegiate athletes, in any sport at any level, get to end their seasons with wins in a postseason tournament. Being able to send out two senior classes with postseason wins in their last games, and doing it all at home, that was really special. 

Your senior year, you were named a CoSIDA Academic All-American and were awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. What did that mean to you and how did you use the scholarship? Also how’s graduate school and what have you been working on?

For starters, my name was only in consideration for anything like this because of what we accomplished as a program over my last two seasons. It simply doesn’t happen if we don’t have the success that we did as a unit. I had top drawer talent playing all around me, so it really speaks just as much to us as a program as it does to me as an individual. The program prides itself on being great students and great athletes, and it’s one of the reasons I chose LVC because that was exactly my mentality throughout my whole career. I was and continue to be humbled and honored by those awards, and I’m proud that I could represent our program in a positive way. 

As for the Postgraduate Scholarship, I think starting grad school, especially in a new place, can be incredibly stressful, and the last thing you want to be worrying about is money for rent or books or anything else, so for me it was huge because it alleviated some of that initial financial stress and helped ease that transition a bit. 

Graduate school is tough but it’s going well for sure. It’s been a mixed bag of research and classes and teaching responsibilities for the last few years, but the next six months or so will see me transitioning to an almost exclusively researching role. Most of my day to day research work is running simulations on the fluid flow in rotating machinery components, but I also get to work with laser diagnostic systems for both rotating machinery and hypersonic propulsion applications. 

How did competing as a student-athlete at LVC prepare you for life after college?

One big piece is learning how to deal with pressure situations, whether that’s in the moment during a game or trying to figure out how to study for an exam when you have a long away game trip the night before. I really believe you are defined by how you respond to these different types of pressure, and there’s no better way to train for that than being a student-athlete. The second piece of that is learning that you have to find time and ways to decompress if you want to continue being successful. Embracing the daily grind is important, but it can eat you alive if you never make time for anything else in your life, and that doesn’t change after you graduate. Learning how to carve out that time for you while keeping a high level on the field and in the classroom directly translates to a job, relationships, or anything else that’s important to you, and I credit my experiences at LVC for helping me develop that skill.

What are your future plans after graduate school?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? A lot is still up in the air, but the current plan is just to keep pursuing anything I can get my hands on that I find interesting, both at UVA and after graduation. A career in academia as a professor isn’t completely off the table, but I’d say I’m definitely favoring a position in the aerospace or mechanical engineering industries. As for who and where, you’re guess is as good as mine, but I still have a few more years to go in Charlottesville before those questions need to be answered. 

What’s your favorite memory from playing soccer at LVC?

It’s hard to point to just one moment because it’s all the little things that add up to make the whole experience special. The ECAC wins stick out for sure, but I think it’s more of being able to celebrate those wins that will stay with me longer. One of my favorite pictures from those tournaments is from one of the ECAC-winning celebrations on the field where the whole team is tossing Charlie up in the air. Just an incredible moment that we all got to share together. 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give a current LVC student-athlete?

Make connections. One of the great aspects of going to a school like LVC with a tight-knit environment is getting to build personal relationships with coaches, professors, and anyone else involved in areas or organizations you spend time with. Leverage that. Having people in your life willing to vouch for you, as a professional and as a person, is more valuable than anything.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give a prospective student-athlete who’s thinking about attending LVC?

I think a big piece is deciding whether the intimate, personal, small-town college experience is right for you. It was for me, and if that’s what you’re looking for, LVC is a perfect place to be.