University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Hoffman Honored With Mary Garber Award As ACC's Top Female Athlete
July 3, 2019 | Field Hockey
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ashley Hoffman finished her Tar Heel career holding a national championship trophy in the air, celebrating a 23-0 season with her UNC field hockey teammates. Since that November afternoon, individual honors have continued to come her way and Wednesday brought yet another: the Mary Garber Award as the Atlantic Coast Conference Female Athlete of the Year.
Hoffman is the eighth Tar Heel to win the honor, the first since Crystal Dunn (women's soccer, and currently representing the U.S. in the World Cup) in 2013. She's the first Tar Heel field hockey player ever to win. The other UNC winners have all come from women's soccer, including Mia Hamm, who won the award twice.
"Ashley is simply phenomenal – as a player and a person – and I'm thrilled to see her recognized this way," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "She was so clearly the best player in the country in 2018, and beyond that she was such a great leader and teammate. And then she earned her degree and went on to play for the U.S. team, where she continues to make us proud. I'm just so excited for her and her family that she's receiving the Garber Award."
Hoffman, from Mohnton, Pa., was the 2018 Honda Sport Award winner for field hockey, a first-team All-America and All-ACC selection, and member of the All-ACC Academic Team. For the second year in a row, she was both the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and the ACC Tournament MVP. She also was named NCAA Tournament MVP as the Tar Heels won the program's seventh title.
A member of the U.S. National Team, Hoffman is just the fifth player in school history to have her jersey retired. She graduated from UNC in December after majoring in sociology and minoring in education.
She recently was announced as a winner of UNC's Patterson Medal, the most prestigious athletic honor awarded at North Carolina.
The ACC Male Player of the Year honor, the Anthony J. McKevlin Award, went to Duke freshman Zion Williamson, the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The ACC Athlete of the Year Awards are given in memory of distinguished journalists from the region. McKevlin was a sports editor of the Raleigh (North Carolina) News and Observer, while Garber, of the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, was a pioneer as one of the first female sports journalists in the nation. The awards are selected by voters who are part of a selected media panel.
Hoffman led the balloting for the Garber Award with 24 votes to outpace Louisville swimmer Mallory Comerford, who received 15 votes to place second.
UNC's Mary Garber Award winners
1990 – Shannon Higgins, soccer
1993 – Mia Hamm, soccer
1994 – Mia Hamm, soccer
1995 – Tisha Venturini, soccer
1999 – Cindy Parlow, soccer
2009 – Casey Nogueira, soccer
2010 – Whitney Engen, soccer
2013 – Crystal Dunn, soccer
2019 – Ashley Hoffman, field hockey
ACC Female Athlete of the Year Awards
UNC 9
Maryland 7
Duke 5
Virginia 3
NC State 2 (includes two ACC Athlete of the Year awards won by a female athlete prior to separate awards)
Notre Dame 2
Wake Forest 2
Boston College 1
Virginia Tech 1
Hoffman is the eighth Tar Heel to win the honor, the first since Crystal Dunn (women's soccer, and currently representing the U.S. in the World Cup) in 2013. She's the first Tar Heel field hockey player ever to win. The other UNC winners have all come from women's soccer, including Mia Hamm, who won the award twice.
"Ashley is simply phenomenal – as a player and a person – and I'm thrilled to see her recognized this way," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "She was so clearly the best player in the country in 2018, and beyond that she was such a great leader and teammate. And then she earned her degree and went on to play for the U.S. team, where she continues to make us proud. I'm just so excited for her and her family that she's receiving the Garber Award."
Hoffman, from Mohnton, Pa., was the 2018 Honda Sport Award winner for field hockey, a first-team All-America and All-ACC selection, and member of the All-ACC Academic Team. For the second year in a row, she was both the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and the ACC Tournament MVP. She also was named NCAA Tournament MVP as the Tar Heels won the program's seventh title.
A member of the U.S. National Team, Hoffman is just the fifth player in school history to have her jersey retired. She graduated from UNC in December after majoring in sociology and minoring in education.
She recently was announced as a winner of UNC's Patterson Medal, the most prestigious athletic honor awarded at North Carolina.
The ACC Male Player of the Year honor, the Anthony J. McKevlin Award, went to Duke freshman Zion Williamson, the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The ACC Athlete of the Year Awards are given in memory of distinguished journalists from the region. McKevlin was a sports editor of the Raleigh (North Carolina) News and Observer, while Garber, of the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, was a pioneer as one of the first female sports journalists in the nation. The awards are selected by voters who are part of a selected media panel.
Hoffman led the balloting for the Garber Award with 24 votes to outpace Louisville swimmer Mallory Comerford, who received 15 votes to place second.
UNC's Mary Garber Award winners
1990 – Shannon Higgins, soccer
1993 – Mia Hamm, soccer
1994 – Mia Hamm, soccer
1995 – Tisha Venturini, soccer
1999 – Cindy Parlow, soccer
2009 – Casey Nogueira, soccer
2010 – Whitney Engen, soccer
2013 – Crystal Dunn, soccer
2019 – Ashley Hoffman, field hockey
ACC Female Athlete of the Year Awards
UNC 9
Maryland 7
Duke 5
Virginia 3
NC State 2 (includes two ACC Athlete of the Year awards won by a female athlete prior to separate awards)
Notre Dame 2
Wake Forest 2
Boston College 1
Virginia Tech 1
Players Mentioned
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