Laura Breen of St. John’s, Rudy Norman of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence Laurentians have been designated as the best Newfoundland and Labrador soccer performers for the decade of 2000 to 2009.
Provincial soccer president Doug Redmond of St. John’s announced the three and explained that “a poll was taken of a rather large group of knowledgeable soccer people and their overall selections are, of course, the best for the current decade.”
“Former president George Innis and Dee Murphy introduced the ten-year selection process in the early 1980’s and we feel it has been a very worthwhile practice. I don’t know of any other local sport that has a similar program.’
Those voting were asked to list their top three in each category.

Laura Breen

Breen was the overwhelming choice for top female, listed first on every return except one. Malorie Harris was the leading contender while others listed included Jessica Wade, Leah O’Grady, Nicole Adams, Sarah Drake, Sarah Arnott, Jennifer Parsons and Alison Jones. During the ten years, Breen amassed remarkable personal achievements, including twice representing Canada in world university soccer championships. As a valuable member of Memorial University varsity clubs she was the team MVP four times, Atlantic MVP, Atlantic rookie of the Year, Atlantic top scorer, twice a Canadian and four times a conference all-star and a MUN athlete of the year. She was voted provincial and St. John’s female athlete of the year, twice voted provincial soccer player of the year and played for Canada against the U.S.A. once.
Within provincial Jubilee Cup competition, she was an all-star seven times, won four MVP awards, was selected as the top defender and won the scoring title after earning a variety of team and individual awards with school and youth soccer. She attended countless Atlantic soccer training camps and has coached several teams.
Norman held a commanding lead over teammate Clinton Edwards who was a very strong runner-up.

Rudy Norman

Others named included Shane Antle, Richard Kelly, Marc Pittman, John Kelly, Dr/ Paul Slaney, Vince McDougal, Bob Spearns, John Douglas, and Blair Alyward.
The extremely impressive decade record of Norman demonstrates tremendous support for his selection. Every aspect of his ten-year performance is outstanding and rather exciting. Coming off exceptional performances in the late 1990s, he really stood out in the 2000s.
He was a Challenge Cup all-star nine of the ten seasons while winning two scoring titles as he had 97 goals for the ten years. The value of his play for St. Lawrence is demonstrated by two Most Valuable Player selections. He led St. Lawrence scoring five times, earned 12 individual awards within the club and was NLSA 2000 player of the year. He completed his degree at Memorial in 2000 and added to his achievements with the University varsity soccer teams by leading team scoring with 11 goals and another first all-star Atlantic Collegiate soccer berth.
It was no surprise that St. Lawrence was first on every team return. Mount Pearl was second and others listed included Holy Cross, Lawn Masters, Mount Pearl female club, ERP Kirby/The Dock, St. John’s Under-17 team that won national bronze medal, 2001 male and 2009 female Canada Games teams.
St. Lawrence won seven of the ten provincial Challenge Cups while going to the title games the other three years and losing by one goal each time. The club did extremely well nationally earning a silver medal in 2002 and a bronze medal in 2007.

2002 Laurentians- Challenge Cup silver medalists

Guards were the team of the1950s, followed by Grand Bank for the 1960s, St. Lawrence for the 1970s, Holy Cross for the 1980s and St. Lawrence for the 1990s.
Joe Gulliver who played for Holy Cross and Corner Brook was male player for the 1950s, followed by George “Bow” Collier of Fortune for the 1960s, Wils Molloy of St. Lawrence for the 1970s, John Breen of Holy Cross for the 1980s and Bob Spearns of St. Lawrence for the 1990s.
Female soccer goes back to the 1970s and Joy Burt of Corner Brook was the top female for that decade with Sherry Morrissey of St. John’s for the 1980s and Raeleen (Dunne) Baggs of Mount Pearl for the 1990s.