Spokane, WA – Simon Fraser University men’s soccer team forward and Coquitlam, BC native Carlo Basso has been named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year along with Tyler Schultz of Seattle Pacific University.

Both players received three votes in the balloting from the league’s six head coaches. Basso led the conference with 16 goals during the 2011 season. The SFU sophomore also finished second in points (32) and points per game average (1.68) while Schultz finished the regular-season as the GNAC leader in total points (33) and points per game (1.83).

“Obviously an individual accomplishment like this feels great but the real success this season was the team going undefeated. I couldn’t have won this award without the great teammates I got to play with,” said Basso. “We set a lot of goals for this season and we were able to achieve all of them, it’s really rewarding to receive this honour on top of it all.”

The Clan had several other award winners today, chosen by the conference coaches as midfielder Justin Wallace (Kamloops, BC) was named GNAC Newcomer of the Year and Chris Bargholz (Fuessen, Germany) received the GNAC Freshman of the Year Award.

Wallace was ranked second in the conference in assists with eight and Bargholz, finished the regular-season ranked seventh in scoring with 17 points (7 goals, 3 assists, 1.13 average).

Not to be outdone, SFU head coach Alan Koch was voted the GNAC Coach of the Year by his peers. Koch, who shared the award last season with Mark Collings of Seattle Pacific, led SFU to the school’s first unbeaten season in history (18-0-1) and a No. 1 national ranking in the National Soccer Coaches’ national poll.

In two seasons in the GNAC, Koch has led SFU to a 37-2-1 record and back-to-back conference titles. In four seasons at SFU, he has a career record of 56-10-2. SFU dominated the all-star voting as well, earning five spots on the first team.

Basso was a unanimous selection along with midfielder Josh Bennett (Hamilton, ON) and defender Matt Besuschko (Port Moody, BC). Max Baessato (Maple Ridge, BC) and Anthony DiNicolo (Maple Ridge, BC) were also named first team all stars.

Wallace, Bargholz, Michael Winter (Vancouver, BC) and Sheldon Steenhuis (Morgan Hill, CA) were all named second team all stars.

In total, nine SFU players were named to the first and second team all-star rosters while Farhad Abdulgani (Oslo, Norway) received honourable mention.

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