Quinnipiac assistant soccer coach Brito headed to Siena
Quinnipiac men’s soccer assistant coach Graciano Brito has been named Siena’s head coach.
A two-time All-American at Quinnipiac, Brito spent the past eight seasons as Quinnipiac’s assistant coach. Brito has helped the Bobcats to at least a share of four conference regular-season championships including the 2013 MAAC Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
Quinnipiac had a 71-53-29 record in the eight seasons that Brito was an assistant coach, including a 52-16-12 mark in conference play.
“I am excited and honored to become a part of the Siena Athletics program,” Brito said in a release. “I will bring both passion and commitment to the Siena men’s soccer program, and set high standards for both athletic and academic success.”
NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
Ten student-athletes from Connecticut universities are candidates for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
UConn leads with way with two nominees with field hockey AllAmerican Svea Boker, who led the Huskies with 21 goals in 2019, and Catherine Crawley, the second-leading scorer on UConn’s women’s hockey team, joined by Coast Guard track All-American middle-distance runner Adora Lawrence, Mallory Nowicki, the leader in kills for New Haven’s volleyball team, the Hartford soccer team’s leading scorer Sierra Stone, Fairfield tennis standout Jessica Pil, Southern Connecticut swimmer Avery Fornaciari and Yale soccer star Noelle Higginson. A pair of multisport stars, Peace Kabari, who competes in basketball and track at Trinity, and Post University’s Kendall Fitzgerald, a member of the cross country, hockey and track and field programs, are also candidates.
There are a record 605 nominees. That number will be reduced to 30, 10 finalists in Division I, II and III, with the NCAA Woman of the Year being announced in the fall.
MENSAH ON WATCH LIST
UConn’s Kevin Mensah, who is coming off back to back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, was selected to the
Doak Walker Award watch list.
Mensah, the first Husky with back to back seasons with at least 1,000 rushing yards since Jordan Todman, has 2,619 career rushing yards and 10 games with more than 100 rushing yards.
NABC HONORS COURT
Five state schools had multiple players selected to the NABC Honors Court.
Yale’s Jameel Alausa, Jordan Bruner, Jalen Gabiddon and Wyatt Yess were selected as was the Quinnipiac trio of Brendan Martin, Rich Kelly and Jacob Rigoni as the Bobcats joined Marist as the only MAAC program with more than one honoree.
Hartford also had multiple honorees with seniors Romain Boxus, Nikola Colovic, Garrett Kingman and Petr Stepanyants selected. Mitchell’s Elijah Baidoo, Malik Chase, Matt Finke, Julius Hemingway, Connel Henderson, Brendan Miller and Tyler Peretz. Trinity’s Colin Donovan and Joe Saba were other honorees.
The NABC Honor Court requires a player to be either a junior or senior and have at least a 3.2 grade-point average.