St. John's Defender is first to unite Hermann and NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete of the Year honors

Senior defenders Catherine Reddick of the University of North Carolina and Chris Wingert of St. John’s University are the winners of the 2003 Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy, presented to the top male and female players in NCAA Division I soccer. The winners were decided by a vote of current National Soccer Coaches Association of America members at the NCAA Division I level.

Reddick (Birmingham, Ala.) spent part of the collegiate season with the U.S. Women’s National Team, where she was a starting defender in the 2003 Women’s World Cup. She returned to UNC following the World Cup to score six goals and dish out five assists for 17 points in 13 matches. The senior defender was a key part of Carolina’s historic season in which the Tar Heels went 27-0, the best record ever in women’s college soccer.

Reddick keyed a dominant UNC defense that did not allow a goal in post-season play, earning NCAA Tournament Defensive MVP honors. North Carolina posted a 6-0 shutout over Connecticut in the finals to capture the school’s 18th national championship.

With Reddick‘s selection, the Tar Heels have had the sixth players earn college soccer’s top honor a total of eight times: Shannon Higgins, 1989 (Hermann); Kristine Lilly, 1991 (both the M.A.C. and Hermann awards); Mia Hamm, 1992 and 1993 (both each year); Tisha Venturini, 1994 (both); and Cindy Parlow, 1997 and 1998 (both each year).

The two other finalists for the award were University of North Carolina sophomore forward Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.) and Penn State senior forward Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring, Md.), a two-time NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Wingert (Babylon, N.Y.) caps off a tremendous season by winning college soccer’s top individual honor. In 2003, he helped lead St. John’s to the NCAA title game, where the Red Storm lost 2-1 to Indiana. St. John’s finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the final NSCAA/adidas National Rankings.

Wingert scored five goals and added five assists during the 2003 season and earned several honors. For the second consecutive season he was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year and NSCAA/adidas All-America first-team honors. He is a member of the United States Men’s U-23 National Team.

Wingert not only has excelled on the field, but in the classroom as well. He won the NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete of the Year, becoming the first player to win both National Player of the Year and Scholar Athlete of the Year in the same season. Wingert also becomes the first player from St. John’s to win National Player of the Year honors.

The other two men’s finalists were University of Maryland senior midfielder Sumed Ibrahim (Tamale, Ghana) and Coastal Carolina senior forward Joseph Ngwenya (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe), the 2002 NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete of the Year.

An exhibition dedicated to the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy featuring all former recipients of both the M.A.C. and Hermann trophies, the current winners, a replica of the Irish crystal trophy and the original Hermann Trophy is on display at the National Soccer Museum in Oneonta, N.Y. Additional information about the soccer Hall of Fame can be found at www.soccerhall.org.

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