November 1, 2007
 

Jackets’ Hoskins and Charles Earn Academic Honor

BILLINGS, Mont. - Montana State University Billings men’s soccer players Justin Hoskins and Sam Charles have been selected to the 2007 CoSIDA Academic All-District VII College Division Men’s Soccer First Team.  Both players were key to the Yellowjackets numerous successes this season including, the program’s first winning season in its 12-year history.

Justin Hoskins

The College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America program divides the country into eight districts.  Sports Information Directors from each of the eight districts select their Academic All-District teams with student-athletes from the eight first teams advancing to national balloting for Academic All-America honors.  Schools from Montana are part of District VII, which also includes Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Nominees for the District VII College Division can come from any Division II, Division III, or NAIA school in any of those states. 

Hoskins, a junior midfielder from Billings, is majoring in Accounting with a 3.93 cumulative grade point average.  Hoskins has played in and started 33 games in two seasons for the Yellowjackets scoring his first goal this season.  As Co-Captain of the team, Hoskins has played an integral part in MSUB’s successes both on and off the field.  As a team, the Yellowjackets broke nearly every record this season.  Most notably, the Jackets obliterated the previous record set back in 2001of 39 goals scored in a single season.  The team has scored 46 goals in 18 games for a 2.6 goals per game average.  The Jackets also allowed just 13 goals against for a school record 0.71 goals against average.  The team also more than doubled the number of shutouts ever recorded in school history in a single season with nine, and posted an eight-game unbeaten streak, the longest in school history.

Sam Charles

Charles, a sophomore forward from Weymouth, England, is majoring in Health and Human Performance with a 3.81 cumulative grade point average.  Charles has played in 34 games in two seasons, starting 33 and has been tabbed the Yellowjackets’ leading scorer both seasons.  Charles has a GNAC leading 19 goals for the 2007 season.  He also holds the school record for goals scored in a single season, surpassing the previous record of 15 that has stood since 1998.   Charles also became just one of five players in Yellowjacket history to score a hat-trick, and just one of three to ever score two in the same season.  He also holds the school record for single season points (41), goals per game (1.19), and consecutive games with at least one goal scored (8).  Charles is currently ranked seventh in the NCAA statistical rankings for points per game (2.56), and is fifth for goals per game.  Quickly becoming the program’s most prolific scorer, Charles’ 26 career goals are just nine shy of the school record 35 for career goals scored by a single player.

The Yellowjackets finished the 2007 season with an overall record of 13-4-1 and 5-2-1 in their first season in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  It was the first winning season in the program’s history.  MSU Billings also achieved its first ever regional ranking in 2007 ranking as high as fourth in the Far West Region.  The team is waiting for the final regional rankings set to be released on Nov. 5th to learn if they will be invited to the four-team regional tournament held Nov. 8-12.