2009 Player of the Year...

tie between Billy Mcguiness and Chris Meingast-both combined to beat Nequa Valley in Super-sectional for LT and have led LT to be favorite for state champions!

How about Kyle Held Palatine- after Murtano went down, this guy was the backbone to an amazing year for the Pirates, and NO one saw it coming either.

I think Ben Beaver would be a great choice. He's the best forward in state and most likely the best player.

Billy McGuinness of LT. Although he does not have the stats of some of the other players, his team does. He reads the game better than any high school player and keep his team very organized in the back. Harry Shipp also should get some consideration.

Janus for LZ. He put up great numbers even after dropping back to midfield, and has helped lead his team to state. It's hard to argue against a talented, unselfish player like that.

I say you wait and see who carries their team to the state Championship.

How about a defensive, stay at home, do all the the dirty work, never get his name in the paper type player. In almost every news clipping, all conference list, and all tournament list are filled with names of players who score. I guess the old saying is Offense sells tickets (or in this case news) while defense wins championships.

Joe, what do you look for in a player of the year? Do they have to be on a winning team or be in 3A? There are a lot of good players out there that just dont have the support around them.

Totally agree with Dad in the stands!

I agree a Top player can be on a sub par team. The Best Player does not need to be on a final 4 or even final 8 team.

Pothast, Janus or Kreutz from Lake Zurich or Shipp from Lake Forest. Shipp did more with less this year then maybe any player in the state. Not taking anything away from the LZ boys but they are all going D1.

After watching the match yesterday it should be LT's goalie Sully Fox. He is very consistent. The kid is phenomenal!

Kyle Held from Palatine. 13 shut outs and stopped all 5 penalty shots he faced this year.

Joe, please tell me you know these are the parents of the players throwing out their kids names!

Thats pretty insulting to the LF team. Dont they have Offer who is a top 100 2011 recruit, Wagemann and Wetterman who play academy plus others. Does not sound to shabby of a team. Most High School teams would love 5 academy players?

really nobody has even thrown out Bryan Ciesiulka from nv...no player deserves it more in my opinion

best defender in the state...keegan balle of nv

Hands down it should be Horacio Sanchez from LT who scored the winning goal against Hinsdale and also against Nequa Valley.

Look in the NSC, a lot of talent with dependable and experienced seniors. You can take any of three talented players off of Lake Zurich. Eric Pothast has my top vote with a close second to Nick Janus and Tim Kreutz. You can make it easier and go Tri-Players of the year. All three going D-I. Just my thoughts......

Joe will pick someone from NV. That's how he works. He's the kind of guy that believes that the best player and what he believes to be the best team should. Do you ever notice that for him the Pepsi is more influential then State. Every year his Pepsi teams get ranked higher because of how they performed there.

Final rankings are not based on one tournament - it's a season-long look.

Why is it that some have to come here to blast Joe rather than leave contructive and POSITIVE information. Joe does a fine job of promoting the game of soccer in the Chicago area...about the only one that does from the major newspapers. The same people whining about Joe are the ones that sit in the stands and second guess officials all night. Just as an officials call is always going to piss off half the fans in the stands...so to will his selections and opinion of the game.

Joe, Do you feel powerfull?

Chris Prince from Naperville Central carried a very average (at best) NC team on his shoulders and made them one of the biggest suprise teams of '09. You can't argue with NT Beaver's production up top or LT Sully Fox's lock down work in goal. Ciesiulka ran the show for a very organized and impressive NV side. Tough question, but amazing to look at all of the talented players around the state this year. Cut Joey some slack on the final rankings...obviously the state tournament for soccer is the most flawed tourney around. At least the pepsi attempts to seed it's top 16 teams...though not always as accurately as can be (Streamwood?)

Rankings don't always hold up - from the power rankings for pros, NCAA rankings and high school rankings.

I have to agree with dad in the stands that the player of the year should be from the defensive side of the ball. Ian McGuire from Maine South had great seasons and shut down Ben Beaver both times they met this year.

There were a number of very, very solid defenders.

It's part of the gig, but thanks.

While it seems that there are a number of good players in the area especially from the Naperville area...I was fortunate to see Palatine play against my son and Held was awesome. With that being said, I took in the LZ vs. Schaumburg match Tuesday evening. LZ is loaded, I'll be extremely surprised if they are not State Champs in the end. Janus would probably get my vote.

If you track back to the beginning of the season, Joe asked about POY, and he threw out some names. I think the 4 players left standing for this honor are Janus, Shipp, Ciesiulka and McGuinness. Janus and Ciesiulka have strong supporting casts, so I boil it down to Shipp and McGuiness. Since posters above want a defender, give it to McGuinness.

Thanks everyone for agreeing with me. But did you notice the positions of the players that were choosen as player of the year.

First Team members would play a 3-3-4, Second Team would play a 1-6-3, and the 3rd team plays 2-1-7. Fair?

This goes back to my original point - offense sell, but defense wins.

When the best teams in the world play a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1, why is it that we don't reward on that same merit. Last I checked only Brazil plays a 1-1-8.

This has nothing to do with things. Just like with all-area football, basketball, baseball, etc, you pick the best players. There are years when defenders dominate and there are not good offensive players. And then there are years the midfield is the loaded. You take the best players to make up the all-area list. And if you look back over history, there have been years when defenders outnumbered the forwards.

Still doesn't make it right. Take the best players at their postiion. It is called a first team not the Best Players. Name it correctly or choose accordingly either way just make it right.

Many players play a number of positions throughout the year. I mean, some of the first teamers played out of their normal position this season, going back and forth.

Either Bryan Ciesiulka or Scott Davis

Now that the finals are over we can make a sound decision. My vote goes to the best player on the best team, who comes up huge in the final game. Billy Mac.

Here is the problem with picking POY before the season is over. Billy McGuinness just had what may be considered the best finals game in IHSA history, and yet Chris Prince is sitting at home basking in the limelight.
Not only has McGuinnes been a complete stud on defense during the playoffs, and shut down multiple scoring opportunities, he scored the game winning goal in the Championship Game by doing a cartwheel where he took the ball from his chest and guided it home with a cartwheel.

Just pick the best players? Then how come there is only 1 goal keeper on each team. Can you really say that out the best 11 only one is a keeper? Come on

Yes - when it comes to the top 33, I believe it's tougher for a goalie to make that list than any other player...because there are many more players to select from.

The best player in a given year is many times (like 8 out of 10 times) not on the IHSA state championship team. Soccer is a team sport, therefore the strongest overall team, not player, is typically in the last game of the year. The player of the year can make an average team, good, which is what chris prince did. If LT was missing Billy, one of the other academy players would have filled his void...hence, no POY

Janus scored a lot even after moving to midfield? I saw quite a few LZ games and at first I thought the Bears were playing 3 forwards. I then realized that the rest of the LZ defense was making up for Janus moving up and playing too offensively. He was selfish.

I see that the Tribune decided to look at more than goals when selecting Player of the Year.
I also guess that Caleb Porter at #1 Akron also knows what he's doing, since he is recruiting Billy McGuinness.

BTW, to the reader above who wrote that LT could just plug in another player obviously has never seen McGuiness play. I have watched him play club soccer for the last couple of years, and he is both tough and smart and is also fun to watch.