Jose Hernandez has spent a good portion of the year adding to his trophy case and he isn’t done as a freshman at UCLA. The Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy product first earned U-18 West Conference Player of the Year after leading RSL’s U-18s to the championship match. Just a few months later, he was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year after his first season with the Bruins, becoming the sixth UCLA player to earn that honor.
A dynamic, but diminutive midfielder, Hernandez had 11 goals and four assists to lead the Pac-12 with 26 points this season. Only one UCLA freshman, David Estrada in 2006, scored more goals than Hernandez and he is just six points away from tying Joe-Max Moore’s 32 points as a freshman in 1990.
With RSL’s U-18s, Hernandez had 25 goals which was good for third in scoring on a record-setting team that reached the final for the third time after two appearances in the U-16 final.
Hernandez was also awarded First Team All-Pac-12 honors while Stanford midfielder Corey Baird, another RSL Academy product, was named to the Second Team.
Elsewhere, Louisville freshman Tate Schmitt was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team and defender Ive Burnett earned All-Conference USA Third Team honors for South Carolina.
