Soccer player O'Brian White wins top award

UConn men’s soccer player O’Brian White has been named the winner of the 2007 Missouri Athletic Club (M.A.C.) Hermann Trophy, the most prestigious individual award in intercollegiate soccer.

The award is the official National Soccer Coaches Association of America Player of the Year award for Division I competition.

White, a junior from Scarborough, Ontario, is the third UConn player to receive the Hermann Trophy.

He led all NCAA Division I men’s scorers in points with 53 and goals with 23, including six in post-season play. He also notched seven assists on the season.

White was selected as the Big East Offensive Player of the Year, and was a unanimous choice on the all-conference first team, after earning conference Player of the Week honors five times this season.

He had seven multi-goal efforts this season, including three hat tricks. White became the first player in UConn history to tally back-to-back hat tricks, as well as three in a career. He now holds the UConn record for goals in a season, bypassing the mark set by Joe Morrone Jr. in 1979. White is eighth all-time at UConn with 101 career points (40 goals, 21 assists).

Said head coach Ray Reid: “We are extremely proud of O’Brian’s accomplishment. He had an outstanding junior season, and it is a great testament to the rest of the players on the team, who were able to put him in good spots to score goals, time and time again. This could not have happened to a finer young man; he has all the right values and priorities.”

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America is the largest soccer coaches’ organization in the United States.

Two former Huskies earned M.A.C. Player of the Year honors during their playing careers at UConn: Morrone was the 1980 recipient, after guiding his team to the NCAA Quarterfinals, and Chris Gbandi took home the trophy in 2000 following UConn’s second NCAA national championship.