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| The Tewaaraton Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | To honor the most outstanding male and female collegiate players, and to recognize the Native American heritage of the sport of lacrosse |
| Presented by | University Club of Washington, D.C., Tewaaraton Foundation |
| First awarded | 2001 |
| Currently held by | Brennan O'Neill, Izzy Scane |
| Website | www |
The Tewaaraton Award is an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players, since 2001. It is the lacrosse equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. The award is presented by The Tewaaraton Foundation and the University Club of Washington, D.C.
Lacrosse is the oldest sport played in North America[1] and the award honors the Native American heritage of lacrosse in the name of its award, "Tewaaraton," the Mohawk name for their game and the progenitor of present-day lacrosse. The Tewaaraton Award has received the endorsement of the Mohawk Nation Council of Elders. Each year, the award recognizes one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes.
Trophy
The award winners each receive a trophy of a bronze sculpture depicting a Mohawk native playing lacrosse. It was designed and created by Frederick Kail with the assistance of Thomas Vennum, Jr., a renowned Native American lacrosse historian and author, who consulted with Kail to ensure the trophy's historical authenticity. The 12-inch figure is mounted upon a hexagon-shaped slab of black granite and polished Cocobolo wood. The hexagonal base symbolizes the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. With some minor decorative exceptions, the stick is a replica of a pre-1845 Cayuga stick belonging to the grandfather of Alexander T. General of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. This stick was an original predecessor of the modern-day lacrosse stick.[2]
Replicas of the trophy are given to the winners each year. The original castings of the trophy are part of a permanent collection and are currently on display at the University Club of Washington, D.C.[2][3]
Nomination and selection process
Players are nominated for the award by coaches from all three NCAA divisions during the collegiate season. All Watch List nominees are then screened and selected by two Selection Committees. The Selection Committees are composed of collegiate coaches, one committee for the men and one committee for the women. At the conclusion of the season the selection committees meet to rank the top five male and female finalists. The finalists are then invited to the Awards Banquet, where the Tewaaraton Award winners are announced.[4][3]
In addition to recognizing the top men’s and women’s collegiate lacrosse players, the Tewaaraton Award in the past has also recognized the High School All-Tewaaraton team for both boys and girls lacrosse. This was a regional team which was composed of the best players from both private and public schools in the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia area. Although no such list has been released since 2010[5] and there is no mention of it on either the Tewaraaton Awards website nor the University Club of Washington, D.C.'s website.
Ceremony
Each year the ceremony takes place at the National Museum of the American Indian.[6] Anyone can purchase a ticket to attend the ceremony.[3]
USILA versus Tewaaraton
There is debate in the lacrosse community as to whether the Tewaaraton Award is actually an outstanding player award or whether it should be called a postseason award. The controversy stems from the fact that the award is usually given to a male player who plays well during the season-ending NCAA tournament and from a team which is the winner or runner up in the NCAA Tournament. The Lt. Raymond Enners Award is the USILA Outstanding Player of the Year Award selected by the NCAA coaches, and the Tewaaraton Award recipient was not the same as the Raymond Enners Award recipient in 5 out of the first 11 years that the Tewaaraton was awarded.[7] Since then, the two awards have agreed almost exactly; in each season but one from 2012 through 2022, both awards were won by the same individual. The only exception in this span was in 2014, when the Enners Award went to one of the two brothers who shared the Tewaaraton Award.
Tewaaraton Award recipients
| Year | Men's winner | School | Position | Women's winner | School | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Doug Shanahan | Hofstra | Midfield | Jen Adams | Maryland | Attack |
| 2002 | Mike Powell | Syracuse | Attack | Erin Elbe | Georgetown | Attack |
| 2003 | Chris Rotelli | Virginia | Midfield | Rachael Becker | Princeton | Defense |
| 2004 | Mike Powell | Syracuse | Attack | Amy Appelt | Virginia | Attack |
| 2005 | Kyle Harrison | Johns Hopkins | Midfield | Katie Chrest | Duke | Attack |
| 2006 | Matt Ward | Virginia | Attack | Kristen Kjellman | Northwestern | Midfield |
| 2007 | Matt Danowski | Duke | Attack | Kristen Kjellman | Northwestern | Midfield |
| 2008 | Mike Leveille | Syracuse | Attack | Hannah Nielsen | Northwestern | Midfield |
| 2009 | Max Seibald | Cornell | Midfield | Hannah Nielsen | Northwestern | Midfield |
| 2010 | Ned Crotty | Duke | Attack | Caitlyn McFadden | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2011 | Steele Stanwick | Virginia | Attack | Shannon Smith | Northwestern | Attack |
| 2012 | Peter Baum | Colgate | Attack | Katie Schwarzmann | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2013 | Rob Pannell | Cornell | Attack | Katie Schwarzmann | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2014 | Lyle Thompson | Albany | Attack | Taylor Cummings | Maryland | Midfield |
| Miles Thompson | ||||||
| 2015 | Lyle Thompson | Albany | Attack | Taylor Cummings | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2016 | Dylan Molloy | Brown | Attack | Taylor Cummings | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2017 | Matt Rambo | Maryland | Attack | Zoe Stukenberg | Maryland | Midfield |
| 2018 | Ben Reeves | Yale | Attack | Sam Apuzzo | Boston College | Attack |
| 2019 | Pat Spencer | Loyola | Attack | Megan Taylor | Maryland | Goalie |
| 2020 | No Awards Due to COVID-19 | |||||
| 2021 | Jared Bernhardt | Maryland | Attack | Charlotte North | Boston College | Midfield |
| 2022 | Logan Wisnauskas | Maryland | Attack | Charlotte North | Boston College | Midfield |
| 2023 | Brennan O'Neill | Duke | Attack | Izzy Scane | Northwestern | Attack |
Men's awards by university
| Rank | School | Number of Awards | Winning Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| T-1 | Maryland | 3 |
2017, 2021, 2022 |
| T-1 | Syracuse | 3 |
2002, 2004, 2008 |
| T-1 | Virginia | 3 |
2003, 2006, 2011 |
| T-1 | Duke | 3 |
2007, 2010, 2023 |
| T-4 | Cornell | 2 |
2009, 2013 |
| T-4 | Albany | 2 |
2014 (2x), 2015 |
| T-7 | Hofstra | 1 |
2001 |
| T-7 | Brown | 1 |
2016 |
| T-7 | Colgate | 1 |
2012 |
| T-7 | Johns Hopkins | 1 |
2005 |
| T-7 | Loyola (MD) | 1 |
2019 |
| T-7 | Yale | 1 |
2018 |
Women's awards by university
| Rank | School | Number of Awards | Winning Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | 9 |
2001, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 |
| 2 | Northwestern | 6 |
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2023 |
| 3 | Boston College | 3 |
2018, 2021, 2022 |
| T-4 | Duke | 1 |
2005 |
| T-4 | Georgetown | 1 |
2002 |
| T-4 | Princeton | 1 |
2003 |
| T-4 | Virginia | 1 |
2004 |
Notable Achievements
- 2014 was the first year that the award was given to a Native American player. It is also the first, and so far only time the award has been given to two players to share: Lyle Thompson and Miles Thompson, who are both part of the Onondaga Nation, won the award that year.[3]
- In 2016, Taylor Cummings became the first and so far only three-time recipient of the award.[3]
Tewaaraton Legend Award
Since 2011, the Tewaaraton Legend Award has been presented to one recipient each year who played collegiately prior to 2001 when the first Tewaaraton Award was presented, whose performance during their college years would have earned them a Tewaaraton Award had the award existed when they played. All awardees received the Enners Award when they played except for Jim Brown and Jimmy Lewis whose playing days preceded the first Enners Award in 1969. In 2016, the foundation began presenting both a men's and women's Legend Award.
| Tewaaraton Legend Award Recipients | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Men's Winner | School | Women's Winner | School | ||
| 2011 | Jim Brown | Syracuse | - | - | ||
| 2012 | Eamon McEneaney | Cornell | - | - | ||
| 2013 | Joe Cowan | Johns Hopkins | - | - | ||
| 2014 | Jimmy Lewis | Navy | - | - | ||
| 2015 | Brad Kotz | Syracuse | - | - | ||
| 2016 | Frank Urso | Maryland | Candace Finn Rocha | Penn State | ||
| 2017 | Peter Cramblet | Army | Cherie Greer Brown | Virginia | ||
| 2018 | Larry Quinn | Johns Hopkins | Amanda Moore O'Leary | Temple | ||
| 2019 | Tom Sears | North Carolina | Kare Emas Borbee | Delaware | ||
| 2020 | No Awards due to COVID 19 | |||||
| 2021 | No Awards due to COVID 19 | |||||
| 2022 | Dave Pietramala | Johns Hopkins | Kelly Amonte Hiller | Maryland | ||
| 2023 | Doug Schreiber | Maryland | Kathleen Geiger | Temple | ||
Legends awards by university
| Rank | School | Number of Awards | Winning Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| T-1 | Johns Hopkins | 3 |
2013, 2018, 2022 |
| T-1 | Maryland | 3 |
2016, 2022, 2023 |
| T-3 | Syracuse | 2 |
2011, 2015 |
| T-3 | Temple | 2 |
2018, 2023 |
| T-5 | Cornell | 1 |
2012 |
| T-5 | North Carolina | 1 |
2019 |
| T-5 | Delaware | 1 |
2019 |
| T-5 | Army | 1 |
2017 |
| T-5 | Navy | 1 |
2014 |
| T-5 | Virginia | 1 |
2017 |
| T-5 | Penn State | 1 |
2016 |
Spirit of Tewaaraton
The Spirit of Tewaaraton is presented each year to an individual who has contributed to the sport of lacrosse in a way that reflects the spirit of the values and the mission of the Tewaaraton award. The award was first presented in 2003. Although there have been some years it was not presented, it has been presented each year since 2012 with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021.[8]
