By Maggie Haskins

During the early rounds Garey was limited in practice, but with a week off before the semis, Garey was able to work out with his teammates. Leading SMU, 1-0, at the half, Garey kicked it into gear in the final 45 minutes. He scored his 21st goal of the season at the 46:41 mark, and just 15 seconds later he received a pass from teammate Maurice Edu and put in his second of the day to propel the Terps to a 4-1 victory. On Sunday, the journey was completed with the win over New Mexico.

It's not just the national championship or the myriad of Maryland scoring records he has broken that led us to give Garey the U Award for the second straight season. It's also how he got there. Garey will be the first to admit that you don't hear a lot about Louisiana soccer players excelling in college soccer. 

"Being from Louisiana I was never selected to go to any of the big time regional or national camps when I was younger," admits Garey, "but I wasn't big enough to play football or basketball and I couldn't hit a curve ball, so soccer it was."

Garey's penchant for scoring was evident from the start. In his first game as a freshman in high school, Garey scored and proceeded to rip off his shirt in celebration. A moment later, a red card was issued and Garey was booted from the game. "Now after I score, I basically black out for like 30 seconds, so I never really know how I celebrate," he says. "But I've done everything, I've run away from my teammates, I've run toward them. I've done it all."

How did Garey celebrate last Sunday night? "It was great," he said. "I can't go into much detail, but we celebrated responsibly."

Honorable Mention

Jeff Rowland, New Mexico. In the summer of 2002, a tall blonde kid from Albuquerque asked if he could try out for the University of New Mexico soccer team. Fast forward four years and that same walk-on is now a finalist for the coveted Hermann Trophy and has just led the Lobos to the NCAA championship game, where they fell to No. 1 Maryland.

After walking onto the team Rowland immediately became an invaluable scorer for the Lobos and continued to soar. Last year as a junior he was the second-leading scorer in the nation with 19 goals, and his .95 goals-per-game and 2.25 points per game ranked third. This year he had in 16 goals and four assists and led the Lobos to their best season in school history.