TRAVERSE CITY -- This kind of thing is getting to be an old hat for Casey Townsend.
For the third straight year, Townsend made his way into the Record-Eagle year-end Top 10.
Winning titles, trophies and traveling abroad to play soccer are all fairly commonplace for the Maryland freshman.
One thing that never gets old for Townsend is scoring goals.
"No, not at all," Townsend said. "We have such good fans and I was lucky enough to score a lot of my goals at home. Our fans are nuts."
The Terrapins' student sections are right behind the goals on both ends, right on top of the action and within earshot of the pitch.
"I was also lucky enough to score in my first home game," Townsend said. "So I got on their good side early."
Townsend's early emergence on the collegiate scene and his team's march to the national championship earned him the No. 5 spot on the Record-Eagle's countdown of the top local stories of 2008.
In one year, he went from being the main man at Traverse City West to one of the leading scorers for a nationally-ranked powerhouse.
"I wasn't surprised and I don't think the (Maryland) coaching staff was really surprised," TC West coach Jason Carmien said. "He left early, and that made a difference in him being an impact freshman rather than someone who has to come in and learn the ropes."
After a 6-1 start, the Terps slowed down a bit with losses to Wake Forest and Clemson in the span of eight days.
"We kind of hit a rough patch when we lost to Wake Forest and Clemson," Townsend said. "Right after the Clemson game, we sat down and had a meeting. We knew we were good, but maybe we thought we were too good."
Maryland reeled off 16 straight wins, including three 1-0 victories to claim the Atlantic Coast Conference title and surrendered only one goal in five NCAA Tournament games.
Townsend graduated from TC West a semester early and enrolled at Maryland so he could train with the team, and the result of that extra semester became obvious right off the bat.
Townsend started every game for the Terrapins and finished second on the team in scoring with 11 goals and four assists.
The inevitable parade of awards followed shortly.
His honors this season included: Soccer America Freshman Of The Year, College Soccer News first-team all-freshman, Topdrawersoccer.com first-team all-freshman, first-team all-ACC freshman, ACC all-tournament team, and Topdrawersoccer.com National Player of The Week (Oct. 21).
Also, he was the only freshman named College Soccer News National Player of The Week and the only frosh to earn ACC Player of the Week.
He was part of TC West's run to the Division 1 state championship in 2006 and was selected on his own for winning back-to-back Mr. Soccer awards last year, the first time that has been accomplished in Michigan history.
With a national championship in tow, Townsend can strike one goal from his list. Two other big ones remains: The Olympics and playing Major League Soccer.
One step toward those goals is making the U-20 team.
Townsend will go to Trinidad for a U-20 qualifying tournament on Jan. 10, hoping to be selected for the final team. He played on the U-20 team earlier this year for a tournament in Ireland and fared well.
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