Dec. 9, 2000
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Notre Dame women’s soccer senior midfielder Anne Makinen (Helsinki, Finland) has been named the recipient of the 2000 Hermann Trophy, a national player-of-the-year award which is college soccer’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
Makinen-who was presented with the prestigious trophy at a Saturday morning ceremony in downtown Charlotte-was a leader for the 2000 Notre Dame team in many ways, posting team-best totals in points (43), goals (14), assists (15) and game-winning goals (6) while helping the Irish overcome the loss of five graduated seniors-three of them All-Americans-from the 1999 Irish squad that advanced to the NCAA title game.
Connecticut defender Chris Gbandi received the men’s Hermann Trophy, giving BIG EAST Conference schools a sweep of the prestigious trophies for the 2000 season.
Makinen was selected from a pool of some 6,700 Division I women’s soccer players representing 271 teams nationwide. The Hermann Trophy is presented by the National Soccer Hall of Fame, based on voting from the nation’s collegiate soccer coaches.
With Makinen leading the way, the 2000 Irish held the No. 1 national ranking for much of the season and finished with a record of 23-1-1, after falling 2-1 to North Carolina in the NCAA semifinals.
Makinen joins the player she replaced in the Irish lineup-midfielder Cindy Daws (the ’96 winner)-as Notre Dame’s second recipient of the Hermann Trophy. UNC is the only other school to produce multiple Hermann winners in the award’s 13-year history, with the past winners including some of the top names in the history of women’s soccer-among them Michelle Akers (Central Florida ’88), Kristine Lilly (UNC ’91), Mia Hamm (UNC ’92, ’93), Tisha Venturini (UNC ’94), Shannon MacMillan (Portland ’94) and Cindy Parlow (UNC ’97, ’98).
Earlier this week, Makinen also was named the recipient of the Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Collegiate Player of the Year Award while collecting first team All-America honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (her fourth NSCAA All-America honor).
As with the MAC Award, Makinen was a landslide winner for the Hermann Trophy, amassing 314 voting points (Penn State forward Christie Welsh was next, with 141).
Makinen-who was a finalist for the Hermann in each of her three previous seasons-earned third-team NSCAA All-America honors as a freshman in 1997 before garnering second-team honors in 1998 and ’99. She is the third Notre Dame player ever to collect four NSCAA All-America honors, joining midfielder Holly Manthei (’98) and defender Jen Grubb (’00) in that distinction.
Makinen also will be honored on Jan. 5, 2001, during a banquet at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, when she will be presented with that traditional crystal ball trophy.
(An updated feature story detailing Makinen’s career has been added to the Notre Dame website.)
SELECT COMPANY (see p. 2): Makinen becomes part of a select group of former Notre Dame student-athletes who have been honored as the nation’s best in their respective sports, joining the likes of seven former Heisman Trophy winners from the Irish football teams (among them Angelo Bertelli, Johnny Lujack, Paul Hornung and Tim Brown) and star basketball player Austin Carr, the only Notre Dame hoopster ever to win national player-of-the-year honors from the AP or UPI (both in 1971) … a total of 42 Notre Dame student-athletes have received a major national player-of-the-year award or placed first in NCAA individual competition (for their respective events or weapons), with the 32 NCAA individual champs including 17 in men’s track & field, 11 in men’s fencing, four in women’s fencing and two men’s cross country.
MAKINEN BIO CAPSULE: Became 13th player in Division I women’s soccer history to reach 50 goals and 50 assists in her career (65G-56A, 186 points) … finished 4A shy of becoming sixth 60-60 player … ranks 5th in ND history for points, 4th in goals and 5th in assists … led Irish during 2000 season in pts (43), goals (14), assists (15) and game-winning goals (6) while appearing in 24 of 25 games, with 22 starts … also had primary assist on four GWGs, plus the corner kick at Villanova that produced the late GWG (1-0) … bailed out ND in four of the five games where the Irish failed to score in the 1st half (all but the 0-0 tie at UConn), by netting ND’s first goal (in the 2nd half) vs. Tulsa, Rutgers while assisting on the 1st goal at Yale (plus the CK that led to the own goal at Villanova) … totaled 43 points (15G-13A) in 27 career postseason games, including 20 points (6G-8A) in 16 career NCAA Tournament games … tied for 3rd in ND history for career game-winning points in postseason play (8, 3 GWG-2 GWA) … helped ND compile an 88-9-4 record (.891) from 1997-2000 … averaged 2.09 pts/gm during her career (186 in 89 GP) … tied for 10th at ND in career games started (87) … set ND record for consecutive games with a point (12) during 1997 season … joined former ND defender Jen Grubb (’00) as second BIG EAST player ever named 1st team all-BIG EAST four times.
All-Time Notre Dame National Players of the Year and NCAA Individual Champions
(player-of-the-year honors refer to those bestowed by established national coaching and media organizations)
1921 … Gus Desch … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (220-yard low hurdles)
1921 … Johnny Murphy … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (high jump)
1921 … Eugene Obert … NCAA Champion … outdoor track (javelin)
1922 … Johnny Murphy … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (high jump)
1923 … Tom Lieb … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (discus)
1924 … Tom Lieb … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (discus)
1926 … Paul Harrington … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (pole vault)
1926 … Charles Judge … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor tack (mile)
1931 … Alex Wilson … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (440 yards)
1933 … Vincent Murphy … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (high jump)
1937 … Greg Rice … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (two miles)
1938 … Greg Rice … NCAA Champion … cross country
1939 … Greg Rice … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (two miles)
1942 … Oliver Hunter … NCAA Champion … cross country
1943 … Angelo Bertelli … Heisman Trophy … football
1944 … Frank Martin … NCAA Champion … outdoor track (two miles)
1944 … Phil Anderson … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (pole vault)
1947 … Johnny Lujack … Heisman Trophy … football
1949 … Leon Hart … Heisman Trophy … football
1953 … Johnny Lattner … Heisman Trophy … football
1955 … Don Tadrowski … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (epee)
1956 … Aubrey Lewis … NCAA Champion … men’s outdoor track (440-m intermediate hurdles)
1956 … Paul Hornng … Heisman Trophy … football
1964 … John Huarte … Heisman Trophy … football
1970 … Rick Wohlhuter … NCAA Champion … men’s indoor track (600 yards)
1971 … Austin Carr … AP and UPI Player of the Year … men’s basketball
1972 … Tom McMannon … NCAA Champion … indoor men’s track (55-meter hurdles)
1977 … Pat Gerard … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (foil)
1977 … Mike Sullivan … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (sabre)
1978 … Mike Sullivan … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (sabre)
1978 … Bjorn Vaggo … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (epee)
1979 … Andy Bonk … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (foil)
1983 … Ola Harstrom … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (epee)
1984 … Charles Higgs-Coulthard … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (foil)
1986 … Molly Sullivan … NCAA Champion … women’s fencing (foil)
1988 … Molly Sullivan … NCAA Champion … women’s fencing (foil)
1987 … Tim Brown … Heisman Trophy … football
1990 … Jubba Beshin … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (epee)
1991 … Heidi Piper … NCAA Champion … women’s fencing (foil)
1996 … Cindy Daws … Hermann Trophy … women’s soccer
1997 … Magda Krol … NCAA Champion … women’s fencing (epee)
1998 … Luke LaValle … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (sabre)
1999 … Gabor Szelle … NCAA Champion … men’s fencing (sabre)
2000 … Anne Makinen … Hermann Trophy … women’s soccer
* Note: the above list includes 34 NCAA individual champions (17 men’s track, 11 men’s fencing, four women’s fencing, two men’s cross country), and 10 national player-of-the-year winners (seven football, two women’s soccer, one men’s basketball).