HOF Players, Coaches Announced
Published on October 9, 2003 under USL First Division (USL-1) News Release
TAMPA, FL â United Soccer Leagues announced today the Coaches and Players that will be inducted into the USL Hall of Fame for 2003 at the USL Annual Operations Meeting in Clearwater, Florida November 7-9. Coaches Buzz Lagos and Bill Palladino will be honored with players Mark Baena and Kim Wyant.
Coaches and Players are elected by the Election Committee comprised of 11 individuals from the inaugural 2002 class and the USL administration. Nominees needed to receive 70 percent approval (8 votes) for induction. For more information about the USL Hall of Fame, including last year's class, visit USLsoccer.com's USL Hall of Fame section: http://www.uslsoccer.com/aboutusl/uslhalloffame/index_E.html
COACHES
Buzz Lagos
Minnesota Thunder, 1994-present
Lagos has amassed a regular season record of 161-76-13 over ten seasons with the Thunder in USL. He has also led Minnesota to the postseason eight times, posting a record of 35-12-2. His Thunder have reached the final six times, four times in the A-League. The Thunder won the 1999 A-League Championship. In the team's first two seasons in USL, the Thunder lost just one regular season match and his team has only had one season with double-digit losses.
Bill Palladino
Raleigh Wings, 1998-2000
In the three-year existence of the Raleigh Wings, Palladino suffered just one regular season loss with a mark of 39-1-2. He was unbeaten in the postseason at 5-0-2, leading the Wings to three straight W-1 championship games. Raleigh won the first two title games in 1998 and 1999 before falling to the perfect 15-0-0 Chicago Cobras in penalty kicks in 2000. Palladino has also been the assistant coach at the University of North Carolina for the last 24 years, where he has helped lead the Tar Heels to 17 national championships and 15 ACC titles. He is also currently serving as the top Assistant Coach for April Heinrichs and the US Women's National Team.
PLAYERS
Mark Baena (1996-2001)
Baena ranks as the all-time leader in A-League scoring with 193 points and 86 goals over his five-year career in the A-League. He is 27 points and 16 goals ahead of second-ranked Steven Patterson, who played four seasons with Colorado and Orange County from 1997-2000. He registered five goals and four assists in his rookie season, playing six games with the Sacramento Scorpions of the Select League (Third Division). The following year in his A-League debut with the California Jaguars, he scored 20 goals and four assists, finishing second in goals and points to Rochester's Doug Miller. He was named to the All-League, First Team for the first of three times. In his second A-League season, Baena won the Scoring (53 points) and Goal Scoring (24) Championships en route to being honored as the 1998 A-League Most Valuable Player. He began the season with California, playing eight games and scoring four goals before joining the Seattle Sounders. He repeated as the Goal Scoring Champion in 1999, sharing the crown with Vancouver's Niall Thompson with 20 goals. Thompson edged Baena for the Scoring Championship with one additional assist. Baena moved back to California to play for the San Diego Flash in 2000, where he tallied nine goals and three assists in 16 games. Baena had one goal and one assist in five career postseason games.
Kim Wyant (1995-2002)
Four-time Goalkeeper of the Year, Wyant leads the W-League in nearly every all-time statistical category. She is second all-time (minimum 2,000 minutes) in goals-against average at 0.81. She is the all-time leader in minutes played at 8,156 with a comfortable 2,542-minute margin. Wyant helped lead the Long Island Lady Riders, whom she has spent her entire career with, to the 1995 and 1997 championships. The team only missed the postseason twice during her career. She won her four Goalkeeper of the Year honors consecutively between 1995 and 1998. She finished sixth in the league in GAA in 1999 and fifth in 2000. She dropped out of the leaders in 2001 due to not reaching the minimum required minutes as she focused on coaching the team to an 11-2-1 record, but still kept her average under a goal per game at 0.83 over six games. She returned as the third best netminder in 2002 with an average of 0.89 over the course of 11 games. It was her seventh time in the top 10 in eight seasons and she never went over 1.00 in a season in her career. She is currently the club's general manager.
USL First Division Stories from October 9, 2003
- HOF Players, Coaches Announced - USL-1
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
