The PLL Awards Dinner took place Friday night during Championship Weekend. With the awards now handed out, I thought I’d share my ballot for the positional awards, and my rationale for voting the way I did. As a refresher, nominees are named by the PLL players. The winners are voted on by the media, Hall of Fame members, front office members, and award namesakes. I’ll mention the nominees, who I voted for, and who actually won. One of my favorite things about awards season in other pro leagues is the discussion around awards like these. Fans are passionate about individual recognition for their favorite players, or the players on their favorite teams. I also really enjoy the time of year when baseball hall of fame voters share their ballots on social media for the purposes of debate, healthy or otherwise. The NBA publishes a PDF that shows every voter and who they picked for first, second, and third place for all the available awards. It’s an easy level of transparency that can be engaging for fans, so I’d like that to be part of the lacrosse world as well. I’ll break down my thoughts for positional awards, MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year.
Here’s my ballot:
Eamon McAneaney Attackman of the Year
Nominees: Marcus Holman, Asher Nolting, Michael Sowers, Jeff Teat, Zed Williams
My Vote: Jeff Teat
Actual Winner: Jeff Teat
I know some voters have the rationale that if Jeff Teat is the MVP, someone else can win the Attackman of the Year. Since he’s the MVP, we all really know he’s attackman of the year. I don’t really think of things that way. I think if he’s the best attackman, he should win the award. This year he was far away the best player in the league, and the best attackman in the league. I did not spend a lot of time thinking about how I could give this award to someone other than Teat because (spoiler alert) I also voted him for MVP. He’s the best, he deserves both. And in every year of PLL Awards, that’s how it has gone. The MVP has always also won their positional award.
Gait Brothers Midfielder of the Year
Nominees: Dox Aitken, Grant Ament, Matt Campbell, Zach Currier, Tom Schreiber
My Vote: Matt Campbell
Actual Winner: Tom Schreiber
This wasn’t easy. I think in my heart of hearts I probably thought Tom would win, but really, I don’t think I ever came all that close to voting for him. I was down to either Grant Ament or Matt Campbell. Ament was the highest scoring midfielder in the league this year. He made the positional change, and if you’ve been listening to post game conferences or interviews with Grant and Coach Bates during Championship Weekend, you know it was not easy to do. In a single summer he’s evolved to be dominant at the position. Moving to attack from midfield doesn’t just mean “oh well he just runs out of the box now”. Spacing is different, dodging is different, the areas you operate in and areas you run into are different. It’s similar to asking a pro lineman in football to move from left tackle to right tackle. You’re not just still blocking, everything about it is different. It seems like it would be simple, it isn’t. I thought Ament deserved a lot of credit for that. I voted for Campbell because I saw so much of the Cannons identity this year in him. They were aggressive, they were downhill, they were launching twos. The Cannons were PLL Mike Tyson. Surely something that hits you so hard can’t also be that quick, but they were. That’s Matt Campbell. The second half of his season wasn’t as electric as the first, but on the body of work, I thought he earned the award.
Dave Pietramala Defender of the Year
Nominees: Gavin Adler, Matt Dunn, Garrett Epple, JT Giles-Harris
My Vote: Matt Dunn
Actual Winner: Matt Dunn
I talked about my thought process for award voting when nominees were announced. But for me, if you just go to the stats page and sort by points, or sort by CTs, and pick the guy at the top, your vote is being wasted. Particularly for a defender. “He causes a lot of CTs” is a nice to have with a defender, not a need to have to be a great pro. I voted for Matt Dunn because he was a great defender, and had to elevate to a different role this year on the defense. The Whipsnakes defense saw Tyler Warner and Michael Ehrhardt retire, Kyle Bernlohr move to a back up role, and Bryce Young get traded to Boston. That’s a lot of leadership that’s not on the field anymore. Dunn had to pick up a bit of each of the roles those former Whips played, in addition to maintaining his high level of play. Zappitello might have been the #1 cover guy when you look at the Whips in a vacuum, but it didn’t always go that way. Dunn guarded Teat when the Whips played Atlas, and did well. He’s still an elite cover defender, and also became the top of the leadership totem pole on that end of the field. In a year where you can be sure Coach Stagnitta challenged Dunn to become more than what he’s been, which was already great, Dunn delivered.
Oren Lyons Goalie of the Year
Nominees: Brett Dobson, Liam Entenmann, Colin Kirst, Blaze Riorden
My Vote: Brett Dobson
Actual Winner: Blaze Riorden
Liam Entenmann played in six regular season games, one of them coming in relief, so I didn’t think I could consider him for Goalie of the Year. If you put his games played aside, his save percentage and SAA are definitely worthy of consideration for the award, but if you don’t become the starter until July, I don’t think you can be the best goalie of the summer. He’ll be a regular in this category going forward though. As good as Kirst was this year, to me, this came down to Dobson and Riorden. A couple things took me towards Dobson. For the first three games of the year, the Archers were without their best defender in Graeme Hossack. They knew they’d be without SSDM of the Year winner Latrell Harris all year. Matt McMahon retired. The defense was the question mark. And Dobson carried the load. They went 2-1 in those first three games before Hossack came back. Dobson had 23 saves week one, and was the chief reason the Archers beat the Waterdogs. The loss in those three games was a superhuman Brennan O’Neill led comeback that we may never see again. The third game was Dobson making 18 stops and allowing just seven goals against the Chaos. Simply put, Dobson was winning this team games in the early going. Three games into the year, without their best defender and an unsure defense, Dobson had 54 saves and a save percentage over 60. In their biggest games, he was the best player in the game.
Paul Cantabene Faceoff Athlete of the Year
Nominees: Trevor Baptiste, TD Ierlan, Joe Nardella
My Vote: Joe Nardella
Actual Winner: Trevor Baptiste
Not an easy decision for this position either. If they gave this award at the midway point of the season, I’d have voted for TD Ierlan. But Joe Nardella’s second half was unbelievable. Over the last three games of the year, as the whips found their stride towards the postseason, Nardella’s worst day was a 65% outing against Denver where he also had two points. The Whips won both their home games this weekend, the second of which came on a blistering hot day in Baltimore with a short bench after the Tucker Dordevic injury. The Whips hung on to win that came because all through the 4th quarter, Nardella won faceoff and faceoff, eating 32 more seconds of clock every single time. He went 67% this year, the league leader in the stat. Yes, he had a 31 for 31 game against a Waterdogs team with no specialist, but even if you take that game away from his stats entirely, he’s at 62.7%, and still second best in the PLL. Trevor Baptiste was his usual dominant self all year, going 66% with six points. Head to head though, Nardella won their battle. I gave the edge to Nardella because of how critical he was to the Whipsnakes’ success in the second half of the year. He was instrumental for them in multiple wins from a possession standpoint.
Brodie Merrill Long Stick Midfielder of the Year
Nominees: Tyler Carpenter, Jared Conners, Ethan Rall
My Vote: Tyler Carpenter
Actual Winner: Tyler Carpenter
I thought this was one of the hardest decision this year. In my mind, this comes down to how the voter evaluates the LSM role. Are you looking for the guy who is going to cause turnovers in the defense end and plays great scramble lacrosse? You probably want Ethan Rall. Are you looking for an LSM to dominate wings and between the lines? You probably want Jared Conners. Are you looking for an LSM who’s great going D to O, and can also be a scoring threat? You’re going to want Carpenter. In the past this was easy because Michael Ehrhardt was always the best at everything, this year it’s like he got split into three players. To me, Carpenter was best going D to O, which is a must have skill set in the PLL game. In the other two areas I mentioned above, I rated Carpenter as, at worst, second best in the league, and so I gave him the edge over the other two. But in 2024, whoever you thought this award should have gone to, you’re probably right. Also, this award should have had four finalists, and Colin Squires should have been the fourth.
George Boiardi Hard Hat Award (SSDM of the Year)
Nominees: Zach Geddes, Danny Logan, Ryan Terefenko
My Vote: Danny Logan
Actual Winner: Danny Logan
This is going to be a tough category for a while. Danny Logan may ultimately go down as the best to play this position. Ever. He changes defenses and changes games in ways that no other SSDM does. There’s nowhere an offense can put him where he’s uncomfortable. In fact, there’s nowhere an offense can put him where he even looks disadvantaged. As a shorty, you are watching a player who looks like he can cover anyone, anywhere. So many offenses start with the premise of “attack the shortsticks” and when you play the Atlas, there’s maybe one guy you can go at if that’s what you’re trying to do. You have to show up with the plan to beat poles, it makes it so much harder. I thought Geddes and Terefenko had exceptional seasons. They’re also game changing players. Terry has an unmatched motor, and he can guard attackmen. Geddes athleticism really came to the forefront this year, particularly in transition. They are elite players. But Danny Logan is Danny Logan.
Rookie of the Year
Nominees: Tyler Carpenter, Liam Entenmann, TJ Malone, Brennan O’Neill, Connor Shellenberger
My Vote: TJ Malone
Actual Winner: TJ Malone
This came down to Malone and O’Neill for me. Both were leaned on as primary ball carriers for their respective teams from the day they arrived. Not easy for rookies. The expectations for O’Neill were sky high, and I’d say for most of the year, he met them. He was 12th in the league in scoring, and he gave us a glimpse of his full potential as a pro, almost single handedly engineering a comeback win against the Archers that will go down as the stuff of legend. But O’Neill also had some quiet games. Malone had under 30 touches in a game just once all year. O’Neill had three. Malone ended the year fourth in the league in scoring, tied with Michael Sowers at 37 points. Malone didn’t have a fully healthy midfield on the field with him all year, as Dordevic missed nearly the entire season, and Brad Smith did miss the entire season. Malone came into an offense in flux, with knowns and with young guys, and brought balance, identity, and consistency, as a rookie.
Dick Edell Coach of the Year
Nominees: Mike Pressler, Jim Stagnitta, Tim Soudan
My Vote: Jim Stagnitta
Actual Winner: Mike Pressler
In all pro sports, Coach of the Year typically goes to the person coaching the team who had the biggest turnaround in win/loss record. So I wasn’t surprised to see Coach Pressler win it this year. The Atlas turnaround this year was tremendous. They blew out the Cannons week one, announcing that 2024 was not going to go like 2023, and just skyrocketed from there, led by Jeff Teat. They had the best record in the league in the regular season. What is interesting is that, as Pressler himself has said, he really took a step back in terms of coaching this year. He’s been vocal about leaning much harder into the GM portion of his role, understanding how important it is, and being a steward of the roster. But he leans a ton on assistants and his captains from there. In my mind I kept trying to resolve giving Coach of the Year to the coach who said he’s doing less coaching and more GMing, it’s a bit of a conundrum. For me it came down to Pressler or Stagnitta. I thought Stagnitta nailed the areas of coaching that are more off the field, player management type things this year. As we said above, the Whips lost a ton of leadership and key players. Stagnitta pushed his veterans to take on more, to see the roster and the locker room a different way, while also bringing along his talented rookie class. He nailed the GM part too, as Pressler did, with in season moves that look like winners. Acquiring Ryan Conrad and Levi Anderson for draft picks, who were both instrumental in the Whips late charge, while turning Jackson Morrill into a draft pick as Morrill wasn’t making the 19 man roster, was very savvy. The Whips were 2-4 at one point this year, and Stagnitta steadied the team by leaning on veterans in new leadership roles and rookies. It turned them into a championship weekend team, ahead of schedule.
Jim Brown MVP
Nominees: Asher Nolting, Blaze Riorden, Tom Schreiber, Jeff Teat
My Vote: Jeff Teat
Actual Winner: Jeff Teat
I don’t think there was anything close to debate on this. Teat was breaking scoring records halfway through the year. The PLL has never seen a 50 point season, and Teat went all the way to 64. They could have given this award at the All Star break, he was so far ahead of the field. The league doesn’t note or designate if this was the case, but I have to think this was unanimous. If it wasn’t, I’d wonder if all the voters are watching these games. With his play indoors and outdoors, Jeff Teat is the outright best player in the world right now.
Jimmy Regan Teammate of the Year
Nominees: Ryan Ambler, Austin Kaut, Cole Kirst
My Vote: Austin Kaut
Actual Winner: Ryan Ambler
Brendan Looney Leadership Award
Nominees: Matt Dunn, Marcus Holman, Tom Schreiber
My Vote: Matt Dunn
Actual Winner: Tom Schreiber
Dave Huntley Sportsmanship Award
Nominees: Piper Bond, Matt DeLuca, JT Giles-Harris, Myles Jones
My Vote: JT Giles-Harris
Actual Winner: JT Giles-Harris
Welles Crowther Humanitarian Award
Nominees: Romar Dennis, Brett Makar, Nakeie Montgomery, Mike Sisselberger
My Vote: Nakeie Montgomery
Actual Winner: Romar Dennis
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