He was tagged on Facebook. That’s how Minnesotan goalkeeper Sean Boyle found out he was named a finalist for the 2017 Disabled Player of the Year award.

The 22 year old has been working in Atlanta for Soccer in the Streets and was wrapping up life there to return to Minnesota for the holidays. A nomination for a national award was not in his plans.

Read more about Boyle’s life leading up to the 2017 World Championship.

His teammate Kevin Hensley (also up for the award) tagged him in a Facebook post and that was the first Boyle had heard of it.

Boyle is nominated along with another of his teammates, Drew Bremer, and Michael Archer, who plays with the Power Soccer National Team.

World Championships

Last summer, Boyle was a hero between the sticks for the US Paralympic national team at the World Championships in Argentina. He helped the team to a fifth place finish, a much improved performance after a disappointing 2016 Paralympics.

Read about Boyle’s injury, recover, and career.

The USPNT’s performance in Argentina included two clean sheets from Boyle with 5-0 and 6-0 wins over Northern Ireland and Australia in the group stages. After losing the last group match to Ukraine, the U.S. then lost in the quarterfinals to England.

Unlike a lot of other tournaments, the World Championships do not play to elimination, but place the entire field of teams. So the U.S. went on to play the second best team in the world, Brazil, only to beat them with a surprise comeback 3-2.

Just days later, the U.S. went on to repeat their heroics by beating Ireland 3-2 with a late comeback. That finish would see the U.S. take fifth place.

For more information about the team and tryouts, please contact head coach Stuart Sharp at ssharp@ussoccer.org.

Check out this primer on the rules of Paralympic 7-a-side soccer.

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