Recognizing the top performer of the 2024 season.
November 12, 2024 by Jenna Weiner in Awards with 0 comments
Ultiworld is pleased to announce our annual Club Awards, continuing with the Club Player of the Year in each division. While we consider both regular season and postseason performance, because of the nature of the Club division, we weight success in the Series and at Nationals above all else. This year, with an uneven regular season, the postseason emphasis is perhaps greater than ever. The Club Awards are voted on by Ultiworld reporters, contributors, and editors.
Player of the Year is our most prestigious award. Our Player of the Year winner is the best performer of the 2024 club season, and the highest vote-getter for All-Club honors. The winner is not eligible for consideration in any of our other individual awards.
Player of the Year Award
All-Club First Team
All-Club Second Team
Offensive Player of the Year Award
Defensive Player of the Year Award
Breakout Player of the Year Award
Coach(es) of the Year Award
Club Awards Voting Breakdown
Snubs and Superlatives
2024 Women’s Division Club Player Of The Year
Claire Trop (Washington DC Scandal)
They say genius is never understood in its own time1, and while that may ring true, Claire Trop seems to be an exception to the rule. After another outstanding season with Washington DC Scandal, Trop claims her second Player of the Year award in as many years, making the Scandal superstar the first player to win back-to-back POTY’s in the history of Ultiworld’s club awards.
Watching Trop play this season, it was easy to see her genius manifest point after point. Finding exactly the opening she needed to launch a perfectly sailing backhand huck, tracking discs downfield with precision, reading the eyes of the offense to block off just the lane opponents were hoping to throw down — all of the elements were there in Trop’s game. Her exceptional field sense and “frisbee IQ” were supplemented by an all-gas no-breaks mentality: Trop gave it her all, in all facets of the game, all of the time, regardless of how many defenders attempted to blanket her.
What resulted was another spectacular season from a player who is quickly becoming the talent of her generation. Trop led Scandal to a second-straight championship game appearance while posting top-ten performances in both goals and assists at Nationals, and even with a trip to Australia for WUC under her legs, seemed nearly indefatigable anyway. Geniuses are rarely appreciated in their own time, but with the excellence Claire Trop showed this season, hopefully we can appreciate just how lucky we are to get to watch her go to work point after point and season after season.
Player of the year Runners-Up:
- Carolyn Finney (San Francisco Fury)
- Manuela Cardenas (Denver Molly Brown)
And by they, we mean cartoonist Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes ↩
