Atlantic Sun Announces Men's Soccer Postseason Awards
Macon, Ga. – Sophomore scoring sensation Willy Guadarrama earned Atlantic Sun Player of the Year honors and nearly helped regular season champ Campbell claim a clean sweep of the league’s postseason awards.
Guadarrama is the nation’s leading scorer and helped the Fighting Camels capture their first A-Sun regular season crown with a 7-1-0 mark in conference play. The forward has collected an NCAA-best 20 goals to go along with four assists. The Cedar Park, Texas native is the first 20-goal scorer in the conference since 1998.
The other half of Campbell’s remarkable brother tandem, Sonny Guadarrama was a unanimous selection as Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year. The younger Guadarrama tops the freshman scoring charts nationally and helped the duo become the first set of brothers to earn first team All-Atlantic Sun honors. Doug Hess was recognized as the league’s Coach of the Year after leading the Camels to a six-win improvement in the standings and a place in the regional rankings. Campbell goalkeeper Aaron Johnson and defensive stalwart Devin Sheppard shared the league’s Defensive Player of the Year trophy with Belmont standout sweeper J.P. Rodrigues.
Campbell placed a conference-best four players on the first team including the only two concensus first team choices in the Guadarrama brothers. Florida Atlantic’s Anders Granstad (1st Team GK) and Mercer’s Del Olaoye (2nd Team F) became four-time All-Atlantic Sun honorees.
The conference kicks off its premier men’s soccer event on Thursday afternoon when fourth-seeded Florida Atlantic faces fifth-seeded Jacksonville at Bear Field in Macon, Ga. By Saturday night, a league champion will be crowned and the league’s berth to the 2005 NCAA College Cup will have been determined. Belmont, Campbell, Florida
Atlantic and Stetson are all looking for their first NCAA appearance while Mercer (three tourney titles) and Jacksonville (one tourney title) look to add to their trophy case.