Men's Soccer Kicks Off First Year Tradition in Style

BEVERLY, Mass.-  Celebrating the 2012 season in fine dining fashion over a tasty spread at the Beverly Depot in downtown Beverly, the Endicott Men's Soccer Program kicked off its first annual team banquet Monday March 25.

Rewarding the accomplishments of the Power Gulls' most successful campaign in nine seasons, including the program's first ever postseason win in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament versus Lasell, Head Coach Joe Calabrese bestowed awards upon four standout players from the 2012.

Leading the Gulls was a group of three seniors; Michael MacLeay, Kevin Gnecco, and Dan Higgins. MacLeay was named Defensive Player of the Year, Gnecco was the recipient of the Coach's Award, and Higgins was the recipient of the Leadership Award. Both Gnecco and Higgins were previously distinguished with All-Commonwealth Coast Conference selections last fall; Gnecco a Second-Team selection and Higgins an Honorable Mention selection.  Both were part of a defensive unit that held opponents to a 1.06 goals against average. Rounding out the list of award winners was freshman Zach Rizzo, who was named the team's Rookie of the Year.

Several players also received recognition for service to the program; four-year players, three-year players and two-year players. All in all, the night was a huge success as the men's team started a new tradition.

Monday night also marked the kickoff to the 2013 spring season as the team got its first session in on the brand new turf of North Field.  Going for two hours, the 30-plus players in attendance enjoyed a technical session on opening the hips to receive the ball and using the Cruyff move or a step-over to evade a defender before finishing off the night with 60 minutes of 11-v11.

Overall Calabrese and the rest of the staff were pleased as the team builds towards its spring season game against American International College in Springfield on April 26^th.