University of Southern Indiana Head Coach Mat Santoro and junior midfielder Sean Rickey (Columbia, Illinois) were named Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year in an announcement by the conference office this evening. The awards were the first for Santoro and Rickey.
Santoro earned the Coach of the Year honor after leading the Screaming Eagles to a 13-3-1 overall record and the program’s first GLVC regular season title since 1990 with an 11-1-1 league mark. He is the second USI head coach to win the honor – Tony Colavecchia was recognized by the league in 1988, 1989, and 1990.
In his 10 seasons at the helm, Santoro has a career record of 88-73-18 at USI and is 37-14-6 in the last three seasons. He also has led USI to an NCAA II Tournament appearance in 2016.
Rickey is the first Eagle to earn the GLVC Offensive Player of the Year since the creation of the award in 2006. He also is just the third Eagle to receive a Player of the Year award in the history of the program (Shane Gibson, 1990; Greg Henry, 2002).
The first-team All-GLVC honoree, Rickey leads the Eagles and the conference in game-winning goals (5), while ranking first on the team and second in the league in total points (27) and goals (11). The junior midfielder also is tops on the USI squad with five assists.
USI junior forward Eric Ramirez (Vincennes, Indiana) joins Rickey on the GLVC first team. The three-time All-GLVC honoree is second on the team with 18 points on eight goals and two assists. Ramirez also follows Rickey with three game-winning goals.
Earning third-team All-GLVC honors is sophomore goalkeeper Justin Faas (Carmel, Indiana). Faas, who is in his first year as the starter between the posts for the Eagles, is first in the GLVC with a 0.83 goals against average (GAA) and .808 save percentage, while tying for first with eight shutouts in 17 games.
In addition to USI’s All-GLVC honorees, senior defender and team captain Kent Katzman (Spring Hill, Tennessee) was recognized as the Eagles’ nomination for the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship award.
USI is ranked 16th in the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II Top 25 poll and second in the NCAA II Midwest Region poll.
2018 ALL-GLVC MEN’S SOCCER POSTSEASON AWARDS
2018 GLVC Offensive Player of the Year
Sean Rickey, Jr., MF, USI
2018 GLVC Defensive Player of the Year
Jonas Skulstad, So., D, BU
2018 GLVC co-Freshmen of the Year
Alejandro Steinwascher, F, UINDY
Kingsford Adjei, F, QU
2018 GLVC Coach of the Year
Mat Santoro, USI
