University of Minnesota Athletics
Soccer Takes Team and Coach Golden Goldy Honors
5/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Women’s soccer collected two of the most prestigious awards presented at the recent Golden Goldys Awards banquet at the University of Minnesota.
The Big Ten champion Gophers received the school’s female Team of the Year award and head coach Mikki Denney Wright was named the Coach of the Year in a female sport.
Minnesota enjoyed its most successful season in school history, setting a school record for wins with a 22-4 overall record and its first-ever berth in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. The Gophers claimed a share of their third Big Ten championship and were ranked 15th in the final national poll. They were one of just six teams in the country with at least 20 wins and they allowed only 12 goals all season while posting a school-record 17 shutouts.
The soccer team edged several other worthy finalists during a successful year of Gopher athletics. Other finalists for the female Team of the Year honor were conference championship teams in hockey, cross country and indoor track and field.
Denney Wright earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in her fifth season as the Gophers’ head coach. Denney Wright owns a career record of 56-39-6 (.584) and turned around a program that had gone 18-31-3 (.375) in the three years prior to her arrival in January 2004.
Other finalists for female Coach of the Year honors were hockey coach Brad Frost and track and field coach Matt Bingle. Both Frost and Bingle were also their respective sport’s conference Coach of the Year.
The third-annual Golden Goldys banquet is an ESPY-style event held at the Radisson University hotel. The awards are voted on by the university’s coaching staff.
