3D Football Trophy Winning Defense – Delay Injuries, Destroy Counter Strikes, Develop Winning Skills. This article explains the process of selecting a Hermann Trophy winner each year and why this specific football trophy is so meaningful to college athletes.
Soccer, or football (soccer) as the rest of the world outside of the United States calls it, is potentially the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, the world championship in soccer, the World Cup, is legitimately watched by billions around the world: far surpassing the Superbowl of professional soccer in the United States. However, many of those people may not understand the commitment and physical conditioning that it takes to be a soccer player in general; let alone a standout player at the college level in goal.
These outstanding college football players are constantly running for a football trophy: the Hermann Trophy. The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the best men’s and women’s college soccer player in the United States. The Hermann Trophy is an exact replica of a regulation number five football and weighs ten pounds. It is prepared each year by Tyrone Crystal from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Being a part of and playing any college sport is an honor in itself. However, college football players are striving for something else: the chance to make “the list,” better known as the Watch List.
The Missouri Athletic Club (or more commonly known as the MAC) Hermann Trophy is the highest individual award in intercollegiate football. The process of selecting a receiver moves as smoothly as a follow-up kick. It begins at the beginning of the college regular season when a nominating committee compiles a list, “the watch list,” of potential nominees. Towards the end of the regular season, 15 players who are considered by the committee to be the best in Division I football are announced as semi-finalists for the award. The top 15 men go to the men’s head coaches and the top 15 women go to the women’s head coaches.
The list of semifinalists for the award is then voted on through an online voting process by Division I men’s and women’s soccer coaches, who are current members of the National Association of Soccer Coaches of America. (NSCAA). In early December, the top three vote winners for the men’s and women’s football trophy are announced as finalists for the award. Those six people are invited to an annual banquet held at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis. The two winners are selected by NCAA Division I coaches who are also members of the NSCAA. During the banquet the winners of the two football trophies are finally announced.
Like many trophies, this honor has the potential to represent something much bigger. Since the award’s inception, Hermann Trophy winners from five different decades have represented the United States as senior international players. Of the 39 winners since 1968, 19 have broken away and played for the US National Team. However, the record speaks for itself. The trophy’s place in American soccer history from the perspective of the national team is surely secure: GOOOAAAL!
