Billy Gazonas
Billy Gazonas is a former U.S. soccer midfielder who won the 1977 Hermann Trophy as the top collegiate soccer player of the year. He played four seasons in the North American Soccer League and several in Major Indoor Soccer League.
Player
Youth
Gazonas played soccer on the boys' team at St. Anthony High School in Trenton, New Jersey, and graduated from the school in 1973. In 1999, he was named by The Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1970s.He entered Hartwick College that fall where he played on the men's soccer team. Hartwick had a dominant team during Gazonas four years at the school. His freshman year, Hartwick lost to Howard in the NCAA post-season tournament semifinals. In 1976, Hartwick made it to the semifinals before losing to Indiana. However, his senior year, Hartwick made it to the championship game where it defeated the University of San Francisco 2–1 to take the NCAA title. Gazones was team captain. That year, Gazonas was named as a first team All American and won the Hermann Trophy as the best collegiate player of the year. This gave Hartwick its second consecutive Hermann Trophy winner as Glenn Myernick had won it the year prior. Hartwick University inducted Gazonas into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.