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One of a Kind: A Look Back at the Career of Tim Winn '09
by Chris Buck, Sports Information Director
Three times a year, I am asked to submit a story for the Athletics section of the Babson Alumni Magazine. For this winter's edition, I chose to write about the incredible career of Babson men's soccer senior co-captain Tim Winn. Unfortunately, due to space constraints the article was originally only about 950 words, and after the magazine's editing and design process, the final version ended up at 824 words. Of those, 105 were dedicated to his statistical achievements, and 74 more covered his awards.
For anyone who has had the privilege to know, play alongside, coach, or simply watch Tim during his four-year career, it is clear that such a small sample can't begin to describe what he has accomplished, nor what he has meant to Babson soccer. So, I have chosen to put together a supplementary piece to further delve into the abilities, awards, and achievements that have carved a permanent place for Tim among the greats that have ever donned a Babson College uniform.
Part One
Before an accurate and honest assessment of Tim's career can begin, we must first establish the context in which his dominance has taken place. For starters, we are talking about the game of soccer. In my 11 years as a professional sports information director, I have never professed to understand even the simplest intricacies of the game. However, over the course of the 150 or so soccer games I have worked, I have learned several basic facts about the game - two of which are specifically relevant here.
First and foremost, soccer is a game that is extremely difficult to win, and even more difficult to dominate. More so than any other sport that I've watched, a clearly superior team in soccer can completely control an entire contest, sometimes mounting seemingly impossible shot advantages (40-plus to 5-or-less is not uncommon), and yet end up with either a tie or a loss to an inferior opponent because of one or two bad breaks. The primary reason for this is the second aspect of soccer that I've discovered.
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| Opposing defenses tried to use both double... |
Scoring goals is hard. The most common gripe that you hear from people who dislike soccer is that "it's boring... no one ever scores". The reason for that is simple... scoring goals is extremely difficult. Even when players position themselves in exactly the right spots and make the perfect runs, the ball has to be hit to them just right. And even when the ball is hit just right to a player that is in the correct place, there is a group of defenders that have to be accounted for and evaded. Even if those defenders are shed and a player has an open look at the goal, there is a goalie in the way whose sole job is to stop you from scoring. And of course, those are the typical challenges on a perfect afternoon. Throw in some 25 mile-per-hour winds, torrential rain, maybe even some snow here and there, coupled with lighting conditions ranging from blinding sun in your eyes to fading daylight in late fall, and it becomes clear that goals are a rarity for good reason.
It is within this sport - one littered with challenges and obstacles at every turn - that Tim Winn has flourished over the last four years. Terrible weather, nagging injuries, constant double-and triple-teams, dirty slide tackles, defenders who at times have nearly ripped the shirt off his body - not to mention the enormous pressure that comes from being the best player on a team that has the richest history at Babson. Tim faced all of these obstacles during his career.
And yet he found the back of the net. Often.
More often than anyone in the 42-year history of the Babson soccer program - a program that has qualified for 19 NCAA Tournaments, made five Final Four appearances, and won three National Championships. A program that has produced 17 All-Americans, countless All-New England and All-Conference honorees, and as of this spring will have enshrined 14 members into Babson's prestigious Athletics Hall of Fame.
On the surface, Tim's records speak largely for themselves: an incredible 56 career goals - 21 more than the next highest total in school history; an even more amazing 141 total points - 37 better than the second-place total. All of this coming in 83 career games, which means on average he tallied 0.675 goals and 1.70 points per game.
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| ...and triple-teams to keep Winn from scoring... |
But it is only upon closer inspection of his statistics that Tim's brilliance is truly evident. After all, averages can be and often are deceiving. For instance, a player can score three goals in one game but be held scoreless for the next two and still average one goal per contest. On paper, it looks like the player had a great week, but in reality, he or she wasn't doing their team any favors in games two and three. Not that multi-goal games aren't great for a team's winning percentage, but in most sports and soccer in particular, consistency is paramount. Racking up four goals in an 8-1 win is nice, but it's more helpful to have two each in back-to-back 2-1 victories.
And that is why Tim Winn is one of the best players in Babson history. Not only are his totals unsurpassed, but his consistency is startling. For instance, do you know how many times Tim Winn, the greatest goal scorer ever to step onto Babson's soccer field, has netted more than two goals in a game?
Exactly once.
October 6, 2007 versus WPI... That day marks the only hat trick in Tim Winn's illustrious four-year career. And for the record, he accounted for 100 percent of the Beavers' offense that day. The final score: Babson 3, WPI 2.
That is why Tim Winn is one of the best players in Babson history. Not only are his totals unsurpassed, but his consistency is startling. |
Amazingly, Tim's incredible career numbers were not built on sporadic outbursts against relatively few opponents, but instead on a consistent basis against almost everyone his team played. For his career, he scored goals in 41 of his 83 games played - an astounding 49.4 percent of the contests he participated in. Equally as impressive, he recorded at least one point (either a goal or an assist) 54 times, or 65.1 percent of the time. As a starter, the numbers are even better. In 73 career starts, he netted goals in 38 games (52.1 percent) and recorded a point in 49 outings (67.1 percent).
Of course, for those who wonder if spreading his production out over so many games was good for the team, consider this. Over the last four years, Babson's record when Tim scored at least one goal was 31-8-2, and its record when he recorded at least one point was 42-10-2. When he did NOT score a goal the Beavers' mark dipped to 21-13-9, and on those rare occasions when he did not register a single point, Babson was 10-11-9, including 13 shutouts.
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| ...but results were often frustrating. |
In total, Babson went 52-21-11 during Tim's career (including a win this past season in the only game in which he did not play). Of the 155 goals the team scored over that span, he netted 56 (36.1 percent) and assisted another 29 (18.7 percent). Simply put, he factored in on over HALF of the team's offense (54.8 percent) for a program that boasted a .685 winning percentage and was ranked among the top 10 teams in New England for four straight years.
Before we move beyond the numbers, one more thing bears close examination. All four of Tim's seasons were spectacular, which is evident in that fact that he holds the top three spots on Babson's all-time single-season points list and is number one, two, and four on the single-season goals list. However, this past fall, his senior season, was especially magnificent. It was not simply that he broke his own single-season record with 42 points, nor that he led his team to its first NEWMAC Championship and NCAA Tournament bid since 2004. It was the manner in which he did it... with consistency, timeliness, and excellence. Simply put, 2008 was vintage Tim Winn.
Stepping back for a moment, let's first take a look at the team that surrounded Tim this past fall. Without question, this year's freshman class was incredible, both in terms of talent and the speed in which they adjusted to the college game. However, the reality was that this was one of the youngest soccer teams in Babson history, with the 19 players who played at least 12 games averaging just 1.22 years of collegiate experience.
It was at the forefront of this young group that Tim Winn rose to heights not even he had previously attained. Even with the second-longest scoreless streak of his career factored in (he actually went six straight games without a goal - his longest drought as a starter), he still scored in an eye-popping 11 of 21 games (52.4 percent). As impressive as that number is (more on that in a moment), it pales in comparison to his points mark, which was nothing short of ridiculous. Of Babson's 21 contests, Tim recorded at least one point in 18 of them - an incredible 85.7 percent of his team's games. Only three times was he held without a single point. Two of those games ended in 0-0 ties.
In order to attach some perspective to what Tim accomplished this fall, I did some research to find out just how impressive it is to score at least one goal in 11 out of 21 games. The results were shocking. Tim's percentage of games with a goal (52.4 percent) was better than eight TEAMS in New England, and it was within five percent of seven others. Obviously the teams that scored less frequently than Tim were bad - I won't name names or list records - but I was shocked to find that the seven squads barely in front of him had a combined winning percentage of over .400 this year (44-68-14, a respectable average of 6.3 wins per team). Far from the dregs of New England soccer, one of those teams was Salve Regina University, a very successful program that finished 10-8-2 this fall and placed fifth in the 12-team Commonwealth Coast Conference. They scored in 11 of their 20 contests - a 55.0 percent clip, just 2.6 percent better than Tim. Again, we're talking about Tim Winn versus ENTIRE TEAMS. Simply incredible.
Ultimately, all those numbers added up to four straight All-Conference First Team honors, three straight NEWMAC Player of the Year Awards, four All-New England designations, and two All-American awards, including a First Team nod as a senior. However, as cliche as it might sound, all of his records and accomplishments took a back seat to winning, and this past fall he led one of the youngest teams in program history to what he cherished most - a NEWMAC Championship and the program's 19th bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Because for Tim Winn, numbers only tell half the story.
