Big South Announces 2021 Men's Soccer Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Campbell redshirt-sophomore midfielder Tyler Young (Troutman, N.C.) and teammate defender Bissafi Dotte (Paris, France) have been voted the 2021 Big South Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, by the conference’s head coaches, it was announced today by the league office. High Point redshirt-junior Holden Trent (Greensboro, N.C.) was voted the first-ever Goalkeeper of the Year, while Winthrop forward Brigham Larsen (Oslo, Norway) was tabbed Freshman of the Year. Campbell head coach Dustin Fonder was voted Coach of the Year, and the Big South’s sports information directors voted Winthrop junior Ben Goodman (Savannah, Ga.) as the Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Young is the second Camel to win Attacking/Offensive Player of the Year honors in the last three seasons. He was the Big South’s top scorer during the regular-season with 27 points, which included a league-leading nine assists. He also scored nine goals, which ranked second overall in the conference, and he was seventh in the nation in assists and 11th in points scored. Campbell was 9-0-1 this season when he tallied at least one point, and Young was a two-time Big South Offensive Player of the Week honoree. Named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week on Sept. 29, Young had a career-high three assists vs. Gardner-Webb and notched two goals and a helper at UNC Asheville during the season. In conference matches, Young scored 12 points on four goals and four assists. In the Offensive Player of the Year voting, Young received four first-place votes and 19 points, just ahead of Larsen (three first-place votes and 17 points) and USC Upstate’s Mario Arrocha (one first-place vote and 10 points).
Dotte is the third straight Camel to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors. He led a Camel backline that allowed just 3.33 shots on goal, posted five shutouts and had the lowest goals-against average in the Big South during the regular-season at 0.92. He played every minute in 13 matches -- including all 110 in the double-overtime draw with High Point, and averaged 85.7 minutes on the pitch. Dotte tallied in assist in the Camels’ win over nationally-ranked UNC Greensboro, and scored a goal against Longwood. In conference action, Dotte helped the Camels to four shutouts and just four goals allowed in eight contests. Dotte received six first-place votes and 21 points, followed by High Point’s Finn McRobb (one first-place vote and 13 points) and Presbyterian’s Cesar Sancho (two first-place votes and 11 points).
Trent is the first-ever Big South Goalkeeper of the Year, as the award was added prior to the 2021 season. He started all 15 matches played and posted a league-leading eight shutouts and ranked second in GAA at 1.06. A two-time Big South Defensive Player of the Week, as well as a TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week honoree on Oct. 12, Trent allowed only one goal in 780:00 minutes of action in all eight Big South matches for a 0.12 goals-against average and a .964 save percentage with seven shutouts. Trent received six first-place votes and 21 points, ahead of Radford’s Joseba Incera (15 points and one first-place vote).
Larsen is the first Winthrop player to earn Freshman of the Year honors since Max Hasenstab in 2013. Larsen was the Big South’s leading goal scorer in 2021 with 10 -- the only player in double-digits and the most goals by a Winthrop freshman since 2005. He ranked second overall in the league with 21 points, and was 20th nationally in goals scored entering the postseason. Larsen was also tops in conference-only matches with seven goals and 14 points. A three-time Freshman of the Week honoree, Larsen scored two second-half goals in a 3-1 win at Furman, and had three multi-goal performances this fall. He received five first-place votes and 21 points, ahead of Campbell’s Kemy Amiche (four first-place votes and 17 points) and Radford’s Yoshiya Okawa (11 points).
Fonder earns his second Big South Coach of the Year honor in three seasons after leading the Camels to a 7-0-1 Big South record and regular-season championship. The Camels finished 13-3-2 overall, which included a 3-1 win over nationally-ranked UNC Greensboro and an eight-game unbeaten streak entering the Big South Championship Semifinals. The Camels finished the regular-season as the Big South leader in shots (268), shots per game (14.89), points (134), points per game (7.44), goals (44), goals per game (2.44), assists (46), assists per game (2.56), fewest goals allowed (17) and goals-against average (0.92). In Big South matches, the Camels led the league in goals (22) and was second in GAA (0.50). Fonder received five first-place votes and 16 points, ahead of Winthrop’s Daniel Ridenhour (one first-place vote and 13 points) and Longwood’s Jon Atkinson (one first-place vote and 11 points).
Goodman carries a 4.0 GPA as a business administration-finance major. A two-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll member, Goodman is the squad’s SAAC representative, volunteers at Second Harvest Food Bank, and has played the second-most minutes off the bench in the midfield.
The league also announced the 2021 All-Conference and All-Academic teams on Monday, which are listed below. The All-Conference team is voted by the head coaches and features three forwards, four midfielders, four defenders, one goalkeeper and one at-large spot on each team, plus five honorable mention honorees regardless of position and an seven-member all-freshman team. The All-Academic Team consists of one student-athlete from each institution that meets the criteria and is nominated and selected by the Big South’s sports information directors.
2021 Big South Conference Men’s Soccer Award Winners
First-Team All-Conference
F: Brigham Larsen, Fr., Winthrop
F: Kemy Amiche, Fr., Campbell
F: Mario Arrocha, Sr., USC Upstate
MF: Tyler Young, R-Soph., Campbell
MF: Markus Gronli, Sr., Longwood
MF: Lalas Ayertey, Sr., High Point
MF: George Bediko, Sr., Campbell
D: Bissafi Dotte, Jr., Campbell
D: Cesar Sancho, R-Jr., Presbyterian College
D: Moses Mensah, Jr., Campbell
D: Diego Konincks, Jr., Campbell
GK: Holden Trent, R-Jr., High Point
AL: Finn McRobb, D, Soph., High Point
Second-Team All-Conference
F: Jake Morris, Sr., Campbell
F: Javier Torres, Sr., USC Upstate
F: MD Myers, Jr., High Point
MF: Ander Etxaniz, Sr., Longwood
MF: Sebastian Chalbaud, Sr., High Point
MF: Niklas Hoener, Soph., Presbyterian College
MF: Sean Green, Jr., Winthrop
D: Jonas Kalchner, Sr., Longwood
D: Franck Momo, Sr., Campbell
D: Filippo Censini, Jr., USC Upstate
D: Nokkvi Nokkvason, Soph., Presbyterian College
GK: Joseba Incera, Jr., Radford
AL: Yoshiya Okawa, F, Fr., Radford
Honorable Mention All-Conference
William Cardona, MF, Fr., Winthrop
Laurits Lillemose, MF, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Mason Marcey, MF, Gr., High Point
Octavio Ocampo, D, Sr., Radford
Karson Kendall, D, Jr., High Point
All-Freshman Team
Brigham Larsen, F, Winthrop
Kemy Amiche, F, Campbell
Yoshiya Okawa, F, Radford
William Cardona, MF, Winthrop
Ethan Stevenson, F, Winthrop
David Greene, MF, High Point
Nile Nguidjol, MF, Presbyterian College
All-Academic Team
Diego Konincks, Jr., Campbell
Cole Sanfilippo, R-Sr., Gardner-Webb
Cooper Lindfelt, Soph., High Point
Jonas Kalchner, Sr., Longwood
Valentin Kliebe, R-Sr., Presbyterian College
Dondre' Robinson, Sr., Radford
Leon Musial, Soph., UNC Asheville
Mario Arrocha, R-Jr., USC Upstate
Ben Goodman, Jr., Winthrop
Offensive Player of the Year
Tyler Young, MF, R-Soph., Campbell
Goalkeeper of the Year
Holden Trent, R-Jr., High Point
Defensive Player of the Year
Bissafi Dotte, D, Jr., Campbell
Freshman of the Year
Brigham Larsen, F, Winthrop
Coach of the Year
Dustin Fonder, Campbell
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Ben Goodman, Jr., Winthrop