PHILADELPHIA – The New England Revolution won Athletic Training Staff of the Year at the MLS Club and Executive Awards Ceremony Thursday night, following the 2015 MLS SuperDraft. The league’s annual year-end awards recognize individuals and clubs for outstanding contributions off the playing field.
“I am very proud of the hard work of entire staff this year and thrilled the league has recognized our training staff for their strong achievements,” Revolution president Brian Bilello said. “We look forward to improving on our performance in 2015 and continuing to deliver a great experience for our fans.”
The Athletic Training Staff of the Year award is presented by Mueller Sports Medicine. The Revolution athletic training staff is comprised of head athletic trainer Evan Allen, assistant athletic trainer Phil Madore and massage therapist Glenn O'Connor as well as a staff of club doctors and other specialists. This season, the group oversaw a Revolution team that had just one player end up on the Disabled List and 14 players were able to make 20 regular-season appearances or more. Additionally, the Revolution roster was nearly fully fit throughout the MLS Cup Playoffs, with just one player missing a game because of an injury.
In addition, the Revolution were also one of six teams in the Commissioners Club for Full Season Renewals (90%+) and several Revolution account executives were also recognized, including third-year account executive Dan Dropkin-Frank who achieved the “Silver” threshold for group ticket sales, improving on his “Bronze” performance in 2013; and Richard Powell and Kyle Lindsay who earned “Bronze” marks for group ticket sales.
New England is coming off a banner year for the organization both on and off the field. Not only did the Revs win their first Eastern Conference Championship in seven years, the club also acquired U.S. National Team star Jermaine Jones in August, while midfielder Lee Nguyen was a finalist for the MLS MVP award, tallying 20 goals and nine assists in all competitions, becoming the first Revolution player to score 20 or more goals in a year since Taylor Twellman in 2007.
Off the field, the Revs grew their season ticket base in 2014 by over 20 percent over the previous year and saw an increase of 12 percent in their regular season home attendance over 2013. The scene was even better in the MLS Cup Playoffs as the club set a postseason attendance record in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Columbus with a crowd of 20,184. However, that record would last less than a month as 32,698 fans came out to Gillette Stadium for the second leg of the Eastern Conference Championship against New York to see the Revs book a trip to MLS Cup for the first time since 2007.
