Pilots nominated for Young Female Athlete of the Year

I just saw the announcement for the U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year Candidates which was published back in November with online votingthrough Dec 8th. How come we missed that? Candidates were:

Kristie Mewis, Midfielder
Vicki DiMartino, Forward
Michelle Enyeart, Forward
Alyssa Naeher, Goalkeeper
Keelin Winters, Midfielder
Courtney Verloo, Forward

Go Pilots!

I seem to recall some discussion about this candidate list in one of the pre-tourney threads. There is a mysterious symmetry to the list: three U-17s, three U-20s, and three girls with Portland ties.

Their candidacy is a great honor for Michelle, Keelin, and Courtney, especially considering the girls who didn't make the list such as Cloee Colohan, Alex Morgan, and Sydney Leroux.

Key to this vote will be the cutoff date. If you included the U-20 WWC Keelin is the obvious favorite. Courtney is still in HS so we are not comparing apples to apples with the college players. The U-17's didn't win so that might taint their bid somewhat. Naeher is a GK they never win these overall awards.

If you go to the us soccer website, you can find information on the awards. There's a bunch of awards, with the first winners announced today. The best athlete awards will be announced on Thursday. There was an opportunity for fan voting, but it closed December 8.

Oh Yeah started a thread on this back on November 21, 2008. Only comments were by Harry b, FANtastic, and Poopdeck.