HARRISONBURG, Va. – EMU Athletics held its annual Athletics Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 20, celebrating and recognizing the accomplishments of our student-athletes and teams during the 2025-26 academic year. Over the next few days, we will recap each of the major award winners.

The Athlete of the Year Award is given to the male and female athlete with the most outstanding athletic achievement in the current academic year. Student-athletes also had to maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 or higher to be eligible. Read on to learn more about this year's winners:

Female Athlete of the Year - Leah Beachy (Women's Soccer)

Beachy was named the Female Athlete of the Year after arguably her best season as a Royal. She scored 10 goals in her senior season for the Royals, including a two-goal performance in the 4-1 home win over Hollins on Senior Day. Beachy finished the campaign ranked seventh in the ODAC in goals, third in game-winning goals (5), and 11th in points (20). Those numbers helped her earn Third Team All-ODAC, the first women's soccer All-ODAC honoree for the Royals since 2017.

Her on-field performance and leadership helped bolster EMU Women's Soccer to one of their best seasons in recent memory. The Royals went 6-11-1 in 2025, obtaining their highest win total since 2019 as well as reaching the ODAC Women's Soccer Tournament for the first time since that same year.

"It's an honor to recognize Leah," said Royals head coach Leo Alcoreza. "Her impact on our program goes far beyond stats. Come game day, Leah consistently delivered in the biggest moments, stepping up time and time again when we needed her most. As a team captain, she led by example every day and she's not just an incredible athlete, she's an even better teammate, person and leader and EMU is better because of her." 

Male Athlete of the Year - Aidan Miller (Baseball)

A four-year starter for the Royals, Miller played in and started 38 games for the Royals this season and had one of the best individual seasons in EMU baseball history. He led the team with a .427 average, which was third in the ODAC for the 2026 season. He was the team leader, and second in the ODAC, in hits with 61, which was the sixth most in a single season in EMU history. He swiped 25 bases, which was tops in the ODAC and is tied for the most stolen bases ever in a single season by an EMU player.

He helped EMU to 14 regular season wins, which is the most for the Royals since the 2019 season.

"Aidan should be getting his second All-Conference award later this month and he'll finish in the top-10 in multiple categories in our record book, but that stuff is really irrelevant to what he's meant to our program," said Royals head coach Adam Posey. "If you guys listen, his nickname right now is 'Skip' as in skipper of the team. He's very passionate about what he does and very loyal and we'll miss all of those things next year."