United Soccer Leagues announced Thursday the winners of their four major Premier Development League postseason honors and Christian Ibeagha of the expansion Cary Clarets became the first player in league history to be named Defender of the Year and U19 Player of the Year in the same season.
Ibeagha, born in Nigeria but a junior at Duke, was part of a defensive unit that had six shutout victories in June 2009 and gave up only two goals during the month. He had one goal in 1,039 minutes played over 13 games for the Clarets this season.
PDL Scoring and Goal Scoring champion Aaron Wheeler of the regular season champion Reading Rage added another award to the trophy case, as he was named the league's Most Valuable Player in voting by the league's coaches and general managers.
He scored a goal or an assist in 12 of 16 games this season and had 17 goals and three assists on the season.
In two games at the end of June 2009, a 5-1 win over the Virginia Legacy and a 3-1 win over the West Virginia Chaos, Wheeler had a combined seven goals over a five-day span.
Casey Mann of the Des Moines Menace was named Coach of the Year after leading them to their second Central Conference, Heartland Division title this season with an 11-1-4 record.
In five seasons with the franchise, Mann has a record of 48-19-13 and led the Menace to the PDL North American Championship in 2005.
2009 was the third season out of his five where the team has had double-digit victories.
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