Minnesota’s Teal Bunbury Wins Hermann Trophy
19-year-old Prior Lake, MN resident Teal Bunbury was the winner of the prestigious 2009 Hermann Trophy presented at the Missouri Athletic Club on Friday evening. Bunbury becomes just the third sophomore to win the award.
“It feels amazing to be honored with this incredible award,” Bunbury said. “I have to give all the credit to my teammates and our coaching staff because I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this without them.”
“It a tremendous honor for Teal and certainly for our program,” said Akron coach Caleb Porter. “We accomplished a lot this year and this is icing on the cake. It is really a credit to how hard Teal has worked because I don’t think I have had a player work harder to get better than him. As a freshman, he came off the bench and scored six goals. This year, he stepped up and scored 17 goals, was the conference player of the year, an All-American and now has earned the Hermann Trophy.”
Beside leading the NCAA with 17 goals, Bunbury led his Akron Zips to the men’s NCAA championship game where they lost 3-2 on penalty kicks to the Virginia Cavaliers. He was also named Goal.com, and Soccer America, Player of the Year. He was named to Top Drawer Soccer’s Team of the Season. He was named National Player of the Week by College Soccer News on Nov. 3 and earned a spot on multiple national teams of the week by Top Drawer Soccer (Sept. 21, Nov. 3) and College Soccer News (Nov. 3). He was also named Mid-American Conference Player of the Year.
Bunbury is expected to go in the top 10 picks, and trainers from Minnesota that have worked with the young forward have only good things to say about his physical attributes and willingness to learn. Neil Cassidy was Bunbury’s coach for the Rochester Thunder PDL team where he played in the summer of 2009. He stated that Teal has all the tools: speed, size and a willingness to learn, yet he has lots of room for growth and potential. “He’s only going to get better,” said Cassidy.
First runner-up for the award was Andre Akpan, a senior who played for Harvard. He had been a semifinalist for the trophy 3 consecutive years. He was Harvard’s all-team leading scorer with 127 points and was named the Ivy League Player of the Year for 2009.
Third place was taken by Corben Bone, a junior midfielder from Plano, Texas, Bone was a standout for Wake Forest. He was named ACC Offensive Player of the Year and currently sits second on Wake’s career assists list with 38.
All three players will be available for the 2010 MLS Super Draft. Bunbury and Bone, both sophomores, have already signed contracts with Project Adidas, meaning they will leave college early to play professionally.
The Hermann has been awarded to the likes of Brad Friedel and Claudio Reyna. However, the award is no sign of sure success. It has seen winners like Wojtek Krakowiak (98) and Luchi Gonzalez (01). Neither were able to make an impact at MLS level, dropped down to USL and eventually stopped playing professionally.
For a complete list of winners click read more.
MEN’S HERMANN TROPHY WINNERS
1967: Dov Markus, Long Island
1968: Manuel Hernandez, San Jose State
1969: Al Trost, St. Louis
1970: Al Trost, St. Louis
1971: Mike Seerey, St. Louis
1972: Mike Seerey, St. Louis
1973: Dan Counce, St. Louis
1974: Farrukh Quraishi, Oneonta State
1975: Steve Ralbovsky, Brown
1976: Glenn Myernick, Hartwick
1977: Billy Gazonas, Hartwick
1978: Angelo DiBernardo, Indiana
1979: Jim Stamatis, Penn State
1980: Joe Morrone, Jr., Connecticut
1981: Armando Betancourt, Indiana
1982: Joe Ulrich, Duke
1983: Mike Jeffries, Duke
1984: Amr Aly, Columbia
1985: Tom Kain, Duke
1986: John Kerr, Duke
1987: Bruce Murray, Clemson (MAC: John Harkes, Virginia)
1988: Ken Snow, Indiana
1989: Tony Meola, Virginia
1990: Ken Snow, Indiana
1991: Alexi Lalas, Rutgers
1992: Brad Friedel, UCLA
1993: Claudio Reyna, Virginia
1994: Brian Maisonneuve, Indiana (MAC: Todd Yeagley, Indiana)
1995: Mike Fisher, Virginia (MAC: Matt McKeon, St. Louis)
1996: Mike Fisher, Virginia
1997: Johnny Torres, Creighton
1998: Wojtek Krakowiak, Clemson (MAC: Jay Heaps, Duke)
1999: Ali Curtis, Duke (MAC: Sasha Victorine, UCLA)
2000: Chris Gbandi, Connecticut (MAC: Ali Curtis, Duke)
2001: Luchi Gonzalez, SMU
2002: Alecko Eskandarian, Virginia
2003: Chris Wingert, St. John’s
2004: Danny O’Rourke, Indiana
2005: Jason Garey, Maryland
2006: Joseph Lapira, Notre Dame
2007: O’Brian White, Connecticut
2008: Marcus Tracy, Wake Forest
2009: Teal Bunbury, Akron
Comments are closed.
Congratulations to Teal. An outstanding player, an oustanding young man.
That is great news for Minnesota, Shattuck, Prior Lake and most of all, the Bunbury family.
One other thing, which National Team owns him? I know he had options going with Canada, US, I think even Portugal or England. Anyway, did he claim a passprot and play for any youth team yet in CA or US?
Cam,
Teal was on US Youth Soccer Regional Teams every year, but was not selected to any US youth national teams (they certainly screwed up there, as he was seen numerous times by USSF scouts at regional team events). Teal represented Canada with the U17s, but that will not prevent him from reresenting US if called. Hopefully that happens.
Great Job TEAL! This is really great news for us in MN. I hope the pro stage of his career is as successful as his college and high-school. As a Canuck living in the US, I’d be fine with him playing for either team.
Teal has appeared on several sports talk radio shows in Canada along with some Canadian podcasts and of course they are claiming him.
He did say he wants to play for Canada like his father, however…. if he had the opportunity for a call up the the US team, you just never know. It’s been a question I’ve been dying to ask him for a while.
Congratulations, I look forward to seeing whether the local ‘rags’ give him any ink … the lack of coverage is really getting to me, but I should not be surprised, as our local Sage, Brucio, says: “Soccer is the sport of the internet”
I remember watching Teal play in Rochester the two times I made the trip south.
The Strib had the smallest mention ever today mixed in with some other prep or college sports news. LAME to the highest degree.