Men's Awards

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Below is a list of Cadet earned awards for the listed academic years. Special note is to be made for the Koehn and Murph awards, named after, and in honor and memory of Danial Murphy (2003) and Kim Koehn (1973), both of whom exhibited such a love of our sport that so played a part in their lives that their families and teammates wished to preserved their memories when their lives were cut short.

In addition to these named awards, there is one other deceased cadet honored by his parents Don and Lois LaTorra, who recognized the passion and value their son placed on his AFA rugby experience. The LaTorra Fund, A true Endowment Fund created in memory of Ross LaTorra (80) and held at the AOG, spins off interest each year to support the Men's team.


As sometimes happens with changing of coaches and administrations, the details and names of these awards get confusing, so where the award was not given out by name, but another 'named' award was given, a 'best fit' for the honoree is place into the chart below. The details for each award that guided the 'best fit' are kept on this site for posterity: Murph Award and Koehn Award

There used to be a plaque in Arnold Hall that had the MVPs listed for men and women but we do not know where it is, so this is our history:

Coach's Awards
Date MV Back MV Scrum Best Rugby Representative Murph Award for Most Inspirational Koehn Award for Rugger of the Year
1969 Bob Bennett Les Dyer <no award>
1970 Gary Schmidt Dennis Leuthauser <no award>
1971 Sean Edris Dave McDougall <no award>
1972 Bob Rice Carl Stanberry <no award>
1973 Jim Yanigloss Bill Diffly <no award>
1974 Bob Arnold Gary Read <no award>
1975 D Woock R. Sheppard <no award>
1976 Jim Carter Rich Carlson Ed Thomas <no award>
1977 Ed Thomas Barney Ballenger Ed Thomas <no award>
1978 Dave Winiger Keith Wilkinson Keith Wilkinson <no award>
1979 Tru Eyre Schulz John Golden, Tru Eyre <no award>
1980 Tom Jones Kevin Nagie J Sirote, Steve Miller <no award>
1981 <no one> <no one> Tom Robinson, Dane Marolt <no award>
1982 James Koehn Dave Tachuk Jim Taiclet, Joe Brennen Jim Koehn, brother of Kim Koehn
1983 <no award> <no award> Joe Barkate Joe Barkate
1984 John Savage Bob Desantis Mark Knofczyski Mark Knofcynski
1985 Mike Murray Wayne Miller Eric Johnson Eric Johnson
1986 Keith McCoy
1987 Tom Sharpy
1988 David Gaines
1989 Jon Finley
1990 Al Fits
1991 Tony Baade
1992 Chuck Cocoran
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997 Mike Maksimowicz Christian Lenahan
1998
1999
2000
2001 Dusty Born Christian Grimm
2002 JF Fryer Josh Dean
2003 Nolan Foster Wade Dahlgren, Ryan Wilmes
2004 Jared Alden Ryan Sanders, Dan Steinhiser
2005 Tommy Smith
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 Ben Burmester (Iron Man) Hunter Hancock (Rookie); Lawrende D'Agostino (Most Improved) Quincy Smith (inspirational) Elliott Higgins William Maschmeyer