Nov. 19, 2008
San Bruno, Calif. - The West Coast Conference announced the 2008 All-Conference team this week. Nine Toreros were represented in four categories. Goalkeeper Kelin Briones earned first-team All-Conference along with defender Ryan Peterman. Midfielder Eddie Ahman made second-team All-Conference honors. Forward Andrew Feld, midfielder Trevor May, defender Tim Grey, and defender JD Penilton all earned honorable-mention All-Conference honors. Forward Stephen Posa and defender Kevin Cook earned all-freshman All-Conference honors.
After a Santa Clara sweep of last year's all-conference individual honors, this year's selections proved to be more inclusive with awards handed to San Francisco, Loyola Marymount, and Gonzaga. The San Francisco men's soccer team took home two individual honors, in addition to six All-WCC team selections after winning the WCC team title for the third time in the last five years. Junior Conor Chinn was awarded WCC Player of the Year honors, marking the second time in three years that a USF player has received the league's top honor, while Head Coach Erik Visser was named WCC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career at San Francisco.
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Loyola Marymount walked away with the same amount of awards as San Francisco, one of which was the WCC Freshman of the Year honor given to defender Roger Downes. Downes, an all-freshman team member, also emerged as an All-WCC second team selection for the Lions, garnering him three separate honors in his freshman career. Rounding out the yearly conference honors was Gonzaga junior defender Nick Barclay earning WCC Defensive Player of the Year.
All seven WCC men's soccer teams were represented on the All-WCC first team, with Portland's Collen Warner as the only repeat first team honoree. Santa Clara's Janil Anibaba and Stephen McCarthy were both selected to the All-WCC second team after being named WCC Co-Freshmen of the Year last season. Senior Corey Heldreth from Saint Mary's joined McCarthy as the only two players to receive second team honors for the second straight season.
Every team in the conference also had at least one player named to the all-freshman team. Loyola Marymount had the most selections with three players in Downes, midfielder Artur Jozkowicz, and defender Tyler Krumpe.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Conor Chinn, USF FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Roger Downes, LMU DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nick Barclay, GON COACH OF THE YEAR: Erik Visser, USFALL-WCC FIRST TEAM Rafael Baca, LMU Nick Barclay, GON Kelin Briones, USD Conor Chinn, USF Frankie Lopez, POR Jide Ogunbiyi, SCU Ryan Peterman, USD Tye Perdido, GON Jeff Russell, USF Yousef Samy, SMC Collen Warner, POR
ALL-WCC SECOND TEAM Eddie Ahman, USD Janil Anibaba, SCU Bryan Burke, USF Roger Downes, LMU Ben Funkhouser, GON Corey Heldreth, SMC Jonathan Levi, USF Stephen McCarthy, SCU Patrick Sampson, LMU Brad Stisser, LMU Leon Williams, USF
HONORABLE MENTION Stephen Carlson, LMU; Jason Coehlo, SMC; Jeff Cosgriff, SCU; Jeremy Coupe, USF; Omar Elmasri, USF; Logan Emory, POR; Andrew Feld, USD; Jordan Grider, SMC; Tim Grey, USD; Austin Guerrero, POR; Nick Heinrichs, GON; Bryan Irwin, POR; Ryan Kawulok, POR; Nick Love, GON; Trevor May, USD; Tim Muravez, GON; Vinny Ocampo, LMU; JD Penilton, USD; Erik Rivas, SMC; Kellen Wantulok, SCU; Brandon Zimmerman, SCU
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM Mitch Boland, GON Kevin Cook, USD Roger Downes, LMU Omar Elmasri, USF Artur Jozkowicz, LMU Ryan Kawulok, POR Tyler Krumpe, LMU Tom Mohoric, SMC Stephen Posa, USD Emmanuel Sarabia, SMC Brandon Zimmerman, SCU
