Field Hockey

West named head coach

Shannon West has had the interim removed from her title as head field hockey coach.

Director of athletics Doug Woolard named West the head coach this past December.

“Shannon’s determination and experience has improved the program already,” says Woolard.

“Saint Louis University is a great school, and we have the opportunity to recruit successful players to this program,” said West. “We want to attract players from across the nation to our program.”

This is West’s first head coaching job. She was 6-17 as interim head coach last year.

Soccer

Champion tabbed as COY

Saint Louis University women’s soccer coach Tim Champion has won his second Coach of the Year award. The first award was from Conference USA. Soccer Buzz named Champion their Coach of the Year this past December.

Champion lived up to his name this past season, directing the women’s soccer team to a 14-3-3 overall record and winning the C-USA regular season title outright for the first time in school history. Champion has an overall record of 44-26-9 at SLU.

Along with Champion, junior Kelly Young, freshman goalkeeper Meghann Burke and senior midfielder Trisha Underberg were honored.

Young held the solid Billiken defense together. Young was also named to the NCSAA All-Region an All-Conference first team.

Burke was named C-USA Player of the Week twice and C-USA Freshman of the Year with school records in single-season goals against average, minutes in goal, shutouts and goalkeeper wins.

Underberg holds the school records for career points (79), goals (28), assists (23) and shots (176). Underberg also was a first-team NSCAA All-Region Selection.

Soccer

DiMaria named All-American

Senior midfielder Jeff DiMaria has been named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America first-team All-American squad. DiMaria is the 44th Billiken to earn All-American honors.

DiMaria was the team captain and led the Bills with 26 points (9 goals, 8 assists). DiMaria was named First Team All-C-USA and was given the Most Valuable Player award in the three regular-season tournaments that the Bills participated in.

DiMaria will play for the West squad in the Umbro Select College All-Star Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during the weekend of Feb. 3-6.

DiMaria also has been drafted by the St. Louis Ambush of the National Professional Soccer League, which is an indoor conference.

He also has been selected, along with teammate Jason Mims, to tryout with Major League Soccer, the United States’ outdoor league.