soccerfanatic
Active member
For some reason, the Big Sky Conference seems to almost always select a keeper as the defensive player of the week. Last year Maren Eves was nominated 7 times and selected once. I think there was only two times all season that a non-keeper was selected. Not to slight Maren (she is a great keeper,) there were some other fabulous defensive players who got little or no credit from the conference. Just in example, Jill Christofferson was a fabulous defender and should have been nominated and selected several times. However, other than Eves, the only ISU defender to even earn an honorable mention was Karissa Henage, and that was for the Offensive Player of the Week, not for her defensive efforts. Last week, our new keeper, Harrison, earned the honor. Her play was acceptable, but I have to believe she will get much better over the next four years and will have many opportunities for the award with even more commendable play. However, last week senior Katie Miller played two of the best games any defender has ever played at ISU. Not only was she perfect on defense, she scored a goal and earned an assist. These defenders do not have the opportunity to earn many stats over the course of the year (in comparison to the offensive players.) Any offensive player (forward or midfielder) can earn offensive player of the week, and the award is split pretty evenly among the offensive positions. By tradition, the keeper already gets credited with the wins and with the shutouts, and earn stats for saves. I think it is about time that the coaches recognize some of the outstanding play received by the other defenders.