UPDATE: The Thunder Bay Chill and Portland Timbers U23s will play for the PDL Championship Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM on Fox Soccer Channel. Friday night in Portland the U23s edged Reading 2:1 while Thunder Bay beat Baton Rouge 2:1 in the semifinals.
U23 and Husky takes two national honors
University of Washington soccer forward Brent Richards today was named the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in the 2,000-player national Premier Development Soccer League.
Richards scored 15 goals for the undefeated Portland Timbers U23s, who defeated Reading AC 2:1 Friday night in the league semifinals.
I talked with Brent during the season about his breakthrough performances. "I've got a great group of players around me that deserve a LOT of the credit for trusting me and setting me up perfectly for many of my finishes," he said.
Brent will likely be marked even more closely by Pac-10 defenders this fall when he returns to the pitch for Washington. Richards still has goals he'd like to accomplish at UW this coming year, though. "Personally, my goals are to lead the conference in points and earn Pac-10 first team but those goals are far overshadowed by my desire for my team to win a Pac-10 championship as well as make a long run into the NCAA tournament."
The other national awards today went to Jim Rilatt of the Portland Timbers U23s for Coach of the Year, and Joe Tait of the Baton Rouge Capitals for Defender of the Year. Mark Lee of the Kitsap Pumas had been a finalist for the defender category.
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