Trojans proud of state trophy

Being runner-up in a state trophy title game is possibly the toughest pill a team can swallow, but Timothy Christian’s boys soccer players know how they’ll come to view their Class 1A second-place trophy.

“It’s an initial blow that you lost, but when you look back at the season there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Trojans senior Jake Schemper. “I’m very appreciative of what everybody on this team has done.”

The Trojans (18-6-1) lost 2-0 to a team from Winnebago (25-2) that had no shortage of attacking weapons at North Central College in Naperville. The Indians posted 162 goals this season in winning their first soccer state trophy title.

For 40 minutes Trojans goalkeeper Peter Tameling and his back line kept the Indians from scoring, but Winnebago struck twice in a three-minute span to start the second half and the Trojans were unable to find the back of the net from there.

“I was proud of the way we played. It just wasn’t enough,” said Trojans coach Rudi Gesch. “But we’ll take second place trophy. It’s been an awesome experience and a great journey.”

Timothy Christian bids farewell to seniors Schemper, Tameling, Jeb Nash, Josh Hjelmgren, Jeremy Hoving, Justin Groenewold, Taylor Slager, Kent Dixon and Jonathan Voss – a core group for which Gesch predicted great things for when they were eighth-graders.
“Phenomenal individual talent, phenomenal team chemistry – just very strong senior leadership, and we’re really going to miss those guys,” Gesch said. “It was a great effort on their parts.”

Nash led the squad offensively with 15 goals and 17 assists, Schemper posted 13 goals and 17 assists, and the Trojans got 10 apiece this year from Groenewold and Slager.

“We’re just all best friends on this team,” Schemper said. “The friendships and relationships I’ve been able to create here have been priceless.”

Originally written by By Gary Larsen | Daily Herald Correspondent

Former college hockey stars Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter will be enshrined into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame as the Class of 2008 it was announced today by USA Hockey. Providence and Women’s Team USA standout Cammi Granato was also selected, the first female among the Hall’s 134 members.

The quartet will be formally inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Denver on Friday, Oct. 10, at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver. The following evening — Sat., Oct. 11 — the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game will take place in the same venue, when Denver plays Notre Dame.

“The Class of 2008 is one of the most accomplished groups that’s ever been inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame,” said Ron DeGregorio, president of USA Hockey. “It is indeed with great pleasure that we welcome them to the group of hockey immortals in our country.”

Hull recorded 1,391 points during his more than 20-year National Hockey League career that included stints with five teams. Hull’s 741 career goals place him third all-time in NHL history. In his first full season with the Blues (1988-89), he scored 41 goals and captured the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. The following year marked the first of three consecutive 70-plus goal seasons, which included a career-high 86 goals in 1990-91 to earn him the Lester B. Pearson Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s MVP.

Hull helped the United States to an Olympic silver medal at his second Games in 2002 and topped the tournament in scoring as Team USA captured the World Cup of Hockey in 1996, the first of his two World Cup appearances. He also participated in the 1991 Canada Cup and 1986 IIHF Men’s World Championship.

Hull played two seasons at Minnesota-Duluth, where he scored 52 goals in his sophomore season and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. No college player has scored more goals in single season since.

In 18 NHL seasons, Leetch was an 11-time All-Star, won two Norris Trophies as the league’s best defenseman, captured a Conn Smythe Trophy as the Stanley Cup Playoff MVP and was the Calder Trophy winner as the league’s top rookie. He is one of only five blueliners in NHL history to record more than 100 points in a season and one of seven to accumulate more than 1,000 points in his career (247-781–1028).

In his rookie season with the New York Rangers (1988-89), who drafted him ninth overall in 1986, Leetch put up 23 goals and 48 assists to capture the Calder Trophy. Three years later, in 1991-92, Leetch tallied a career-best 102 points, including a team record 80 assists, to capture the Norris Trophy for the first time. In 1993-94, the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in more than 50 years. He led the way as the top scorer in the post season and was the first ever American-born player to capture the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.

Internationally, Leetch is one of just 10 American men’s ice hockey players to have competed in the Olympic Winter Games three or more times, as he played for Team USA in 1988, 1998 and 2002. He also represented the United States at three IIHF World Junior Championships (1985-87), two IIHF Men’s World Championships (1987, 1989), one Canada Cup (1991) and twice in the World Cup of Hockey (1996, 2004).

Leetch played one season (1986-87) of college hockey at Boston College and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award.

Mike Richter played in 666 games during his 14-year NHL career, all with the New York Rangers. His 301 wins with the team are more than any other Rangers goaltender and he helped the club win its first Stanley Cup in over 50 years.

Playing full-time for the Rangers beginning during the 1990-91 season, he was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie in just his second full season in the NHL. In 1993-94, Richter was selected as the MVP of the NHL All-Star Game and went on to set a Rangers’ single-season record with 42 wins in leading the team to the President’s Trophy and its first Stanley Cup title since 1942. Beyond making a huge impact for the Rangers, Richter also was an integral part of the U.S. program for parts of three decades. He is one of just 10 Americans ever to compete in at least three Olympic Games, including in 2002, when the team captured the silver medal. In addition, he led Team USA to the World Cup of Hockey championship in 1996 and was named the tournament’s MVP. He also played in two IIHF World Junior Championships (1985-86), three IIHF Men’s World Championships (1986-87, 1993) and the 1991 Canada Cup. Richter, a three-time NHL All-Star, played two seasons of college hockey (1985-87) at Wisconsin before beginning his professional career.

Cammi Granato’s extraordinary playing career, particularly at the international level, has played a key role in the growth of women’s hockey not only in the United States, but across the world. At Providence College, she established goal-scoring records and captured ECAC Player of the Year honors from 1991-93.

A 15-year member of the U.S. Women’s National Team beginning in 1990, Granato is the program’s all-time scoring leader with 343 points (186-157) in 205 games. She achieved international fame by captaining Team USA to the gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, the first time ever women’s ice hockey was included in the Games. Four years later, she captained the United States to the silver medal at the 2002 Olympics. In her last international competition and ninth World Championship, she led Team USA to the gold medal, its first-ever in an IIHF World Women’s Championship. In 2007, Granato received the NHL’s Lester Patrick Award in recognition of outstanding service to hockey in the United States, and, in 2008, she was enshrined into the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Granato was the first woman to be honored with the aforementioned awards and will be the first female to be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

Originally Written by CHN Staff, www.college hockeynews.com

Soccer blogging from the Web

Significant silverware got lifted again in RFK Stadium, as D.C. United claimed one of the three major U.S. domestic soccer trophies on Sept. 3.

D.C. United defeated Charleston Battery 2-1 and captured the 95th [!] Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It was the Screaming Eagles’ third appearance in the competition’s final and their second victory there. There still remains the ultimate prize, the MLS Cup, and the most unwanted of trophies, the Supporters Shield, in the 2008 season.

Charleston, currently perched atop the 11-team USL First Division, put up a good fight, but they lacked a crucial element in their scheme: Brazilians. It’s also a commodity they’ll likely never have, unless in the future the U.S. soccer system switches to a relegation/promotion league and opens the way to more competition, more dollars and more common sense. The Battery already have a soccer-specific stadium, after all, though it only seats 5,100, according to Wikipedia.

D.C.’s effervescent goal poacher, Luciano Emilio, capitalized on a 5th-minute defensive cockup to claim an early lead when he sidefooted the ball into the net from the edge of the box. After long periods of midfield mastery and brutal challenges by the Battery, in which the southerners evened the score, D.C. coach Tom Soehn showed the power of the almighty dollar when he substituted attacking midfielder Fred into the game in the second half. The Brazilian showed his class when he beat the offside trap and waltzed in on top of the Battery goal from right midfield before sniping home the winner.

I think all three goals came from defensive lapses. There were also periods of the game that started to look very MLS, and I desperately wanted somebody to make a 50-yard pass or a 5-yard sliding tackle. Anything other than the no-attack style made famous by Team USA! D.C. United was especially guilty: After Emilio left the game through injury, only Jaime Moreno and Santino Quaranta remained on the field to pose any sort of goal-scoring threat for the Screaming Eagles, and neither is a Golden Boot candidate by any means.

Sept. 3 was the first time in at least eight years that a non-MLS team contested the final. Since the founding of MLS in 1996, top-tier teams have dominated the tournament that all U.S. clubs can contest. Rochester Rhinos, defeating Colorado Rapids in the 1999 final, made the USL’s last dent on the tournament.

Founded in 1993, the Battery reached the quarterfinals last year and the semifinals in both 1999 and 2004.

But the most successful team in U.S. Open Cup history remains…drum roll please…Bethlehem Steel! The team won five cups and finished runner-up in a sixth during the roaring twenties before the Great Depression killed it. If you are bored and want some interesting reading, glance at the team’s Wikipedia page [we used to import players from Britain to play in Pennsylvania??].

Of the teams with four Cups to their credit, only Chicago Fire looks poised to overtake Bethlehem Steel. I’m not a gambling man, but I wouldn’t put money on the likes of Maccabee S.C., Ukrainian Nationals or the Fall River Marksmen, even if they still existed, which, for some reason, I doubt they do.

Fun fact from www.usopencup.com: The New York borough of Brooklyn has been home to a team contesting the U.S. Open Cup final 13 times, in the form of Brooklyn Field Club, Robbins Dry Dock F.C., Brooklyn Italian SC, Brooklyn Dodgers S.C., Brooklyn Hispano F.C. and St. Mary’s Celtic. In fact, the very first final, in 1914, was the only all-Brooklyn affair: Field Club triumphed 2-1 over St. Mary’s.

Originally blogged by Jeremy H

Trophy News from Michigan

A wheelchair-bound Michigan teen got a special gift from one of his heroes over the weekend. Pat and Teresa Byrnes took their son Cody to the Michigan International Speedway so he could see his favorite driver, Carl Edwards, race. “Carl happened to be walking by and we gave him a thumbs up and Cody gave him a thumbs up and he saw his flag waiving on the back of Cody’s chair. And so he stopped, turned around and came back and he came over and he signed his wheelchair and he signed his shirt,” said Teresa Byrnes.

The Byrnes were already excited that Cody got to meet his hero, but they weren’t prepared for what Carl Edwards told Cody next. “He looked at him and he said, ‘Hey buddy, I’ll tell you, if I win that trophy today, now that’s if I win, I’ll give you that trophy‘,” Teresa recalled.

The Byrnes say they began to realize Edwards could win the award when he moved from the 27th spot to first place in about 60 laps. Pat Byrnes says that’s the most nervous he’s ever been during a race. Edwards did win that race. Carl Edwards signed the trophy for Cody with the initials NGU, which means never give up.

“Cody, everyday he wakes up and sees it. It’s like he’s realizing it’s really his and he’ll get excited and squeal, for someone to work so hard to get that trophy and then to say, ‘Here, you can have it’. That is the kindest gesture anybody has ever done,” said Teresa.

Originally Written by Mike Webster at NBC

Trophy News From London, England

Potential for a serious split in the cricket world and a seriously devalued ICC Champions Trophy have been averted by the postponement of the competition due to take place in Pakistan next month. West Indies, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, as well as England, told an ICC tele-conference yesterday that they were not prepared to send teams because of concern over security.

David Morgan, the ICC president, said it may still switch the trophy tournament, now scheduled for October 2009, if countries continue to express fears over their safety. The concern is that any move will become a precedent ahead of the 2011 World Cup, which Pakistan is jointly hosting with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

English county clubs are the immediate beneficiaries. Their international players will now be available for the end of the season. Of the leading Championship trophy contenders, Durham will have Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Paul Collingwood and Stephen Harmison while Nottinghamshire can call upon Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Samit Patel and Graeme Swann.

The postponement means that the inaugural Champions League, which includes Middlesex as winners of the Twenty20 Cup, may be brought forward from its date in December, having been switched from the end of September and early October after complaints about the proximity to the Champions Trophy.

Originally Written by Richard Hobson in The London Times

Trophy News From the University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut men’s soccer player O’Brian White (Scarborough, Ontario) headlines the list of 48 men’s Division I intercollegiate soccer players that comprise the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy Watch List for 2008, as released by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Tuesday.

Connecticut and Saint Louis each have three players on the soccer trophy list, as does reigning national champion Wake Forest. Four other schools have two players recognized: Central Connecticut State, Creighton, Harvard and Loyola (Md.).

White, a senior forward, elected to stay at UConn instead of turning professional and now has the opportunity to become the first men’s player to repeat as a Hermann Trophy winner since Virginia’s Mike Fisher received the award in 1995 and 1996. Only three players have earned the Hermann trophy in consecutive seasons: Fisher and Saint Louis University products Mike Seerey (1971-72) and Al Trost (1969-70).

Considered the highest individual honor in intercollegiate soccer, the recipients of the MAC’s Hermann Trophy are selected by Division I head coaches who are current members of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. A list of 15 semifinalists is selected by a coaches committee in November, with three finalists announced in early December. They will invited to the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, Mo., for a news conference on Jan. 9, 2009, where the winner will be announced, with a presentation banquet following.

Originally Written by UConnHuskies.com Staff

Trophy News From West Virgina

Four wildlife management areas and one state forest have been set aside as trophy areas for deer. Will they produce the desired results?

Over the past decade, bowhunters here in the Mountain State who concentrate their efforts on trophy bucks have focused on the four southern counties of Boone, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming. After all, these four counties have been closed to gun hunting for a number of years now. And numerous trophy bucks have come from this area over the past 20 seasons.

In addition, there have been a respectable number of wallhangers that have been taken from many of the other surrounding counties that border these four areas. Simply put, this region of the Mountain State is pretty tough to beat if you are an avid bowhunter of trophy bucks.

If you are a trophy gun hunter, chances are you’ll head for one of the more remote areas in the state, such as places in Randolph, Webster or Pendleton counties. You might even head south to one of those counties in the southern coalfields region where gun hunting of trophy bucks is permitted.

Originally Written by Game & Fish Magazine Staff

Trophy News from ESPN

Kobe Bryant recently said he would rather win an Olympic gold medal than the NBA championship. Was he merely saying what was politically correct before the Olympics? Did he say it only because it sounds better than “I would rather win an Olympic gold medal than lose the NBA championship”? Or does an Olympic gold medal really mean more to him than a professional championship?

Only Kobe knows for sure but what about you? What sporting trophy means the most to you? Of all the things you could win in sports, which would you choose? A Super Bowl ring? The Masters green jacket? The Heisman Trophy? The Cy Young Award? A World Series? A Final Four? There are dozens upon dozens of championships and awards to win, but which would you most want to claim?

Here are a few quick caveats on my rankings:

The form of the award matters. Trophies top plaques, and the bigger the better. After all, you want the damn thing to look impressive in your trophy case.

Names count, too. Awards named in honor of a person (such as the Cy Young) just resonate more than those that, while prestigious, are named something boring and generic like the “MVP award.”

Durability counts. Generally, the longer the award has been around, the more it means.

Originally Written by Jim Caple for ESPN