The PDL announced the finalists for its 2012 regular season honors today. The awards for Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year and Coach of the Year will be presented at Saturday’s awards ceremony at the 2012 PDL Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. The finalists were selected through a vote of team management.

Five teams are in the running for multiple awards, including the Carolina Dynamo, Michigan Bucks, Ocean City Nor’easters, Portland Timbers U23s and Thunder Bay Chill. The Bucks, who finished the regular season with a PDL-best record of 13-1-2, will have the opportunity to capture four of the five awards, with Adam Grinwis a finalist for Rookie of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year, Gary Parsons a finalist for Coach of the Year and Kevin Cope a finalist for Defender of the Year.

Head Coach Tim Oswald is on the shortlist for "USL PDL Coach Of The Year" after the Nor’easters fantastic 13-3-0 record in the regular season. Director of Communications Steve Thurlby added "Tim recruited some great players to add to our core players from 2011. He got these players to play as a team and the regular season record says it all. A great year and an even better one next year is expected".  Goalkeeper Jon McCarthy is already seen as one of the top 3 goalkeepers in the Premier Development League and hopes to achieve the award for "Goalkeeper Of The Year" when the awards are handed out this weekend.

The Dynamo, who will welcome FC London to Macpherson Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday for the 2012 PDL Championship, have a pair of finalists in Head Coach Marc Nicholls and defender Sebastien Ibeagha.

Thunder Bay’s Sullivan Silva, the PDL’s scoring leader, is a finalist for MVP along with Reading United AC’s Deshorn Brown, who shared the goal-scoring title with Silva, and Portland’s Mark Sherrod. Sherrod is also in the running for Rookie of the Year.

MVP
Deshorn Brown, Reading United AC
Mark Sherrod, Portland Timbers U23s
Sullivan Silva, Thunder Bay Chill

Rookie of the Year
Jordan Green, Kansas City Brass
Adam Grinwis, Michigan Bucks
Mark Sherrod, Portland Timbers U-23s

Coach of the Year
Tony Colistro, Thunder Bay Chill
Marc Nicholls, Carolina Dynamo
Tim Oswald, Ocean City Nor’easters
Gary Parsons, Michigan Bucks

Defender of the Year
Kevin Cope, Michigan Bucks
Max Gunderson, Laredo Heat
Sebastien Ibeagha, Carolina Dynamo

Goalkeeper of the Year
Adam Grinwis, Michigan Bucks
Alonzo Jimenez, West Texas Sockers
John McCarthy, Ocean City Nor’easters