MVPs: Driving the championship run

At heart, none of this year's Deseret News boys soccer MVPs are flashy personalities.

Content to let their play on the pitch do all the talking this spring, all four MVPs quite simply made their respective teams go.

And go they did.

Austin Nate of Brighton, Jake Parkinson of Mountain View, Austen Stevens of Park City and Robbie Hull of Rowland Hall drove their teams forward in 2009 and ultimately led them to state championships in their respective classifications. As a result, they have been named this year's Deseret News MVPs.

AUSTIN NATE, Brighton: For a variety of reasons, Brighton's offensive attack was in flux from the start of the preseason to the end of the regular season.

The Bengals, who were trying to repeat as 5A champs, had to deal with a key injury and other absences at various times this season — not to mention the fact that coach Russ Boyer likes to frequently sub his attacking players on and off the field anyway.

But through all the shuffling, there was one constant — Nate.

While Boyer moved guys in and out of the other five attacking positions, he never moved Nate from the middle of the pitch.

Ever.

Boyer finally got all the other attacking pieces in place around Nate just in time, and the results in the postseason were awfully fun to watch.

With Nate pulling the strings, Brighton did everything it needed to do to repeat as 5A champs.

"He plays every minute unless we get a big lead or something," said Boyer. "A lot of times you may look at game situations and try to add a forward or do something a little bit more defensively — depending on the score and the situation of the game — but the option was never to move him. He was always there.

"He's just a constant for us, and his consistency is just as impressive as his flashy playmaking ability. What he really brings to our team is that consistent presence, that continuity in the attack and that's why he's in there every minute of every game."

Nate opted to play with his club team during the spring of his freshman season and consequently didn't try out for Brighton's soccer team.

When he decided to be a part of Brighton soccer one year later, Boyer first made him earn his stripes on the JV team. Other players could've potentially wilted in that situation, but Nate thrived on it.