WESTFIELD, Mass. – Following a fantastic career as a multi-sport athlete at Massachusetts Maritime, Benjamin Paine was named the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year as voted on by the Athletic Directors within the conference.

Paine, a four-year starter on both the Buccaneers soccer and baseball teams made his presence known on the defensive side of the ball. He was a three-time All-Conference defender (2017, 2018, 2019) on the soccer pitch and played gold glove caliber defense as a utility player in baseball. On the diamond, he holds a .977 fielding percentage, having made just five errors in his career.

He graduated with a 3.81 GPA and a degree in marine engineering with a minor in energy management. A MASCAC All-Academic Team member every season, Paine also earned spots on the President's List six times and the Dean's List once. He was also an Emery Rice Scholar, which is the highest academic scholarship available at MMA and is awarded to those in the top-five of the class.

In addition to his athletic and academic accomplishments, Paine was also very involved on campus. He was a member of the MMA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) where he helped with the SAAC annual toy drive. He also served as a Team IMPACT liaison.

Paine also served as the 6th Company squad leader where he oversaw the academic and mental well-being of more than 70 freshman cadets. In this role, he volunteered for numerous campus tours, athletic open houses, and Welcome Aboard, a one-day orientation for freshman.

This past year, he served as Cadet First Assistant Engineer on Training Ship Kennedy, where he was awarded a senior cadet officer position and was put in charge of reporting to the First Engineer and overseeing the engineering work of more than 150 cadets on the MMA training cruise.

Aside from his campus work, he also volunteered at the Red Cross Food Pantry in 2019 and served as a deckhand at Seastreak LLC.

The MASCAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year has been awarded annually since 1980 to a student-athlete who has excelled in both the classroom and field of play while maintaining at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average through their last year of athletic eligibility.