FieldTurf Announces 2008 Soccer Coach and Team of the Year Awards

MONTREAL, Jan. 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FieldTurf announced the winners of its annual Soccer Coach and Team of the Year Awards for the 2008 season today. The awards will be formally presented at the 2009 National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention in St. Louis on January 16. Winners were announced in 11 different categories including the national high school team of the year. These awards are based on tabulated votes from FieldTurf Tarkett executives and a panel consisting of Al Albert, Tonya Antonucci, Chris Burt, Brian Ching, Glenn Davis, Anson Dorrance, Jay Hoffman, Bill Irwin, Buzz Lagos, Matt Reis, Steve Sampson, Steve Shak, Aly Wagner, Durward Williams and Tanya Vogel.

This year’s winners are:

• MLS Coach of the Year – Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew
• USL Division 1 Coach of the Year – Colin Clarke, Puerto Rico Islanders
• USL Division 2 Coach of the Year – Martin Rennie, Cleveland Internationals
• USL W-League Coach of the Year – Shek Borkowski, FC Indiana
• NCAA Division 1 Coach of the Year (Men’s Soccer) – Bob Warming, Creighton University
• NCAA Division 1 Coach of the Year (Women’s Soccer) – Randy Waldrum, Notre Dame
• MLS Team of the Year – Columbus Crew
• USL Team of the Year – Puerto Rico Islanders
• NCAA Team of the Year – University of Maryland (Men)
• National High School Team of the Year (Girls) – The Pennington School (NJ)
• National High School Team of the Year (Boys) – Brentwood HS (NY)

Inside Minnesota Soccer Note: I wish there were more soccer companies that did this sort of thing and brought a greater visibility to soccer in the U.S. I know FieldTurf is not a soccer company per se, and they do awards for other sports as well, but my hat’s off to them for creating an executive board that is knowledgeable yet diverse. They have honored people that truly deserve recognition in this country for Soccer.

The board itself has some MLS players, our own Buzz Lagos, former National Team Coach Anson Dorrance and Steve Sampson as well as Jay Hoffman. Hoffman has been a US National Team staff coach and a regional director as well as a youth coach for different US National boys teams. I also took my C license from Jay. Bill Irwin goes way back and actually played for the MN Strikers for a season. It’s just good to see coaches and players getting their due. As a side note, NCAA D-1 Coach of the year, Bob Warming had Minnesotan standout Andrei Gotsmanov on his team at Creighton University.