Sibling Soccer Players Enter Moraine Valley Hall-Of-Fame

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL — Alex Duncan and Erin Duncan, brother and sister soccer players, were both inducted into the Moraine Valley Community College athletics hall-of-fame last month.

“Moraine Valley made an impact in guiding me to the next university. It helped me fall back in love with soccer,” Alex Duncan, who attended Sandburg High School before Moraine Valley and Saint Xavier University afterward, said. “I’m honored to be in the Hall of Fame and touched by the way I was able to leave a mark on a program that did so much for me.”

“This was a huge part of my life and huge part of who I am as a person and the values I have and values I try to instill in my students, too. The decision to try out for the soccer team definitely influenced some of my decisions later on in life. I learned to have fun and play hard thanks to my coach,” Erin Duncan added.

Alex Duncan, now a resident of Portland, Oregon, was a forward/striker for Moraine Valley in 2004 and 2005. According to the school, he was named to the NJCAA All-Region second team and All-Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference team his freshman year and a year later helped his 2005 team go 7-0 in conference for the championship, an accomplishment the school previously not achieved since 1996.

Individually, he earned All-Region first team, All-Conference, the NJCAA Region IV’s best forward, Skyway Conference All-Academic, and earned team, conference and region MVP his sophomore year. He was the first and only player from the Moraine Valley's men's soccer program to be named NJCAA Division I All-American honorable mention.

According to the school, Erin Duncan spent just one season competing on the women’s soccer team "but left her mark on the program."

"She played one year of Division I soccer at Loyola University before feeling burned out and transferring to Moraine Valley in fall 2003. The burnout, however, nearly kept her from attending tryouts at Moraine Valley, which she decided to do the day before. The center midfielder went on to help her team go 16-5 overall and win the program’s first NJCAA Region IV championship."

She ended the season with 49 points, 37 assists and six goals, and earned All-Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference, Skyway MVP of the Year, All-Region IV, Division I Region IV MVP, Skyway Conference All-Academic Team, Moraine Valley team MVP and NJCAA Division I All-American third team.

Others who entered the Moraine Valley athletics hall-of-fame this year include baseball coach Al Budding, football player Harvie Herrington, basketball player Shane O’Donoghue and cross country runner Lisa Pollard.