April 28, 2005

LSM Silverman Takes Home Robert DiGiovanni MVP Award

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- At the team's awards banquet tonight, held annually at the Campus Inn, the 2005 men's lacrosse team honored its twelve seniors, and handed out some hardware.  As he's done the past two years, Mike O'Leary (St. Louis, Mo./Clayton), a senior midfielder majoring in Film and Video Studies, ended the evening by unveiling the 2005 team video, entitled To Be a Michigan Wolverine.  The video is not quite complete, as conference and national tournaments still remain, but the half-hour documentary captivated the audience of about 150.  Every senior spoke, with most highlighting the friendships they've made and the times they've shared with teammates and staff.  Many also commented on the unfinished business still at hand.

Senior longstick midfielder David Silverman (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) was honored as the 2005 recipient of the Robert DiGiovanni Most Valuable Player Award.  Silverman, who has been a dominant force in between the boxes for Michigan this year, leads the team with 118 ground balls and has also added 5 goals and 2 assists.  In his introduction before Silverman's senior speech, head coach John Paul simply commented, "the best longstick middie in the nation, enough said."

Sophomore/Freshmen attackman Evan Fox (Monsey, NY/Suffern), who leads the team with 66 points on 44 goals and 22 assists, was voted the team's Offensive Most Valuable Player.  Fox also took home the team's Rookie of the Year Award.  Fox did not play last year, so he is a sophomore with freshman eligibility, thus making him eligible for the Rookie of the Year voting.

The Defensive Most Valuable Player Award went to senior captain Kirk Kozel (Barrington, Ill./Taft, CT) for the third straight year.  Kozel, one of the top defensemen in the nation, has been called upon throughout his career to shut down the top offensive players on every team the Wolverines face.  This year he held Oakland's three-time CCLA scoring champ Bill Binge, the 2004 CCLA Offensive Player of the Year, to zero points for the first time in his career.  Kozel was the CCLA Defensive Player of the Year in 2003.  He has been on a scoring binge of late, contributing four goals and an assist thus far this season.  This is the first time in Michigan history that one player has won one of the major MVP awards three years in a row.

There was another first in the Unsung Hero Award category, when three players shared the honor.  Senior faceoff specialist Trevor Broad (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Liggett) and defensive midfielders Paul Passino (Houston, Tex./Episcopal), a senior, and Eric Rimmke (Portage, Mich./Portage Northern), a junior, all received an equal number of votes from their teammates.  Broad has won 175 of 267 draws this year, for a .655 win percentage - a huge factor in Michigan's success.  Passino and Rimmke, in their second years anchoring the defensive midfield positions together, are part of a defensive unit that has allowed only 3.8 goals per game in 2005.  The defense has not given up more than seven goals to an MDIA team this year.

Passino took home his second award of the night when he was named the recipient of the 2005 Leadership/Inspiration Award.  The senior captain has been Michigan's most vocal leader all year.

O'Leary was honored, for the third straight year, with the team's Commitment/Citizenship Award.  The award goes to the player who best upholds the ideals of Michigan lacrosse and Michigan tradition.  Aside from his work on the team video the past few years, O'Leary has coordinated numerous team community service functions, fundraisers and campus events.

Sophomore attackman Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) was voted as the team's Most Improved Player, in what John Paul called a very tight vote.  Hudson, a starter for much of last season as a freshman, suffered a serious ankle injury in early October, and missed most of the fall and first half of the season.  In his first game back against Texas on April 1, although not nearly at 100 percent yet, he scored 4 goals in limited action.  He has since earned his spot back on the extra-man unit and continues to be an offensive factor for the Wolverines down the stretch.

Finally, two players shared the Wesley Martus Scholar-Athlete Award, going to the non-freshman with the highest overall grade point average on the team.  Sophomore longstick midfielder Abdul El-Sayed (Bloomfield, Mich./Andover), a biology and political science major planning on medical school, and Rimmke, who is in the highly rated Michigan Business School, both boast perfect 4.0 grade point averages.  Paul commented that the team's overall GPA is around a 3.4, despite most of the athletes' enrollment in demanding majors like engineering, computer science, the honors program, business and pre-law and pre-med.  In all, ten out of thirty eight players carry grade point averages above a 3.6.

The team also honored Jack O'Leary, Mike's father, as the outgoing president of the Michigan Lacrosse Booster Club.  O'Leary was recognized for all the work he's done to incorporate and upgrade the boosters over the past four years.

Contact: Joe Hennessy (734) 276-8493, jjhennes@umich.edu