Vancouver Whitecaps Press Release - www.whitecapsfc.com

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

VANCOUVER, BC - Vancouver Whitecaps FC, in conjunction with the Canadian Soccer Association, announce that midfielders Monica Lam-Feist and Russell Teibert have been named Canadian U-17 Players of the Year for 2008.

Lam-Feist and Teibert were honored in a vote that was shared between members of the Canadian national team coaching staff and all Canadian coaches that have taken A and B-level coaching courses. This is the second straight year that Lam-Feist has been named the top U-17 female player in Canada after winning the same award in 2007.

Lam-Feist, 17-years-old, started six matches with the Whitecaps women’s team during the 2008 United Soccer Leagues (USL) W-League season for a total of 483 minutes of action.

Though eligible to play for Canada’s U-17 national team in 2008, the native of Surrey, BC, moved up a level and helped Canada’s U-20 national side claim the CONCACAF U-20 Women’s Championship title, having scored in each of Canada’s two opening matches in Puebla, Mexico, last June. At the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in late November, Lam-Feist scored goals against Democratic Republic of Congo and Germany in Group C, although Canada missed out on advancing to the knockout stages in Chile. Though she has not appeared for the senior women’s national team, Lam-Feist was the youngest player to be called up to the squad for the Four Nations Tournament in China last January.

Teibert, 16, joined the Whitecaps Residency program last August following spells with Toronto FC Academy’s U-16 side and the Ontario provincial team program, where he won a silver medal with the Ontario U-16 side in Brossard, Quebec, last year. A native of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Teibert appeared in all five matches of the Residency team’s highly successful trip to Japan last month, making two starts and scoring one goal. Before traveling to the Far East, the talented youngster received his first call-up to the Canadian U-17 national team for a training camp in Mexico in November. This included four appearances against Mexican youth sides, with the midfielder scoring a goal in a 5-1 win over Querétaro FC Youth on November 30. Teibert did not play in the PDL during the 2008 season.