UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; December 26, 2005 - For the third time in his distinguished career, Penn State head coach Barry Gorman has been selected as the NSCAA/adidas Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. The award recognizes the nation's collegiate soccer coaching elite, as only eight coaches from the 199 Division I programs are recipients of the regional honor. Gorman also garnered the accolade in 1992 and 1999.

The regional coaches will be joined by the coaches whose teams advanced to the semifinal round in their respective postseason tournaments to make up the pool of candidates for the NSCAA/adidas National Coach of the Year award. The recipients will be announced at the NSCAA Awards Banquet on Friday, Jan. 20, 2006, held in conjunction with the NSCAA Convention in Philadelphia, Pa.

After injuries and inexperience threatened to derail the 2005 season early on, Gorman lead his team back from the brink to a spotless 6-0-0 Big Ten record, the program's first Big Ten Regular Season Championship, and its third Big Ten Championship. The Nittany Lions then earned the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Championship and advanced to the third round of the postseason tournament, finishing the year with a 13-7-2 record.

Gorman, in his 18th season at Penn State, is the school's all-time winningest coach with 237 victories. For guiding his team to historic and unprecedented conference season, Gorman was unanimously selected by his peers as the 2005 Big Ten Coach of the Year, the first such honor of his career.