CARY, N.C. (Nov. 1, 2023) — North Carolina FC forward Oalex Anderson and head coach John Bradford have been named finalists for the USL League One Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards, respectively, the league announced today.
The Coach of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, November 8, at 2:30 p.m. and the Player of the Year will be announced on Friday, November 10, at 2:30 p.m.
Anderson finished as the runner-up in the Golden Boot race in his second season with the club, scoring 17 goals and adding six assists, while also winning 109 duels at a 37.5% success rate.
The forward was named as the league’s July Player of the Month and was named to the USL League One Team of the Week seven times during the 2023 campaign, earning the Player of the Week distinction in week 16.
Anderson signed with NCFC ahead of the 2022 season and provided 11 goal contributions that season, but the St. Vincent and the Grenadines international exploded in his second year to lead the club to a second-place finish in the table and first-round bye in the playoffs.
This season, Bradford led NCFC to a 19-6-7 record, second-place finish and first-round playoff bye. The team’s 63-point haul in 2023 was the highest point total in club history and over double what the club achieved in either of the previous two seasons.
NCFC’s plus-19 goal difference was the third best in the league this season. Bradford was named the league’s Coach of the Month in April.
Over his tenure, the team has signed, developed and given significant minutes to youth standouts, such as goalkeeper Nick Holliday, who signed with a club as a 15-year-old in 2021 and started 13 games for the club in 2023.
Bradford was first named the NCFC head coach ahead of the 2021 season after a year as an assistant coach with the team and a long tenure in leadership roles on the youth side. From 2016 to 2019, the Winston-Salem native spent time as an assistant coach with the U-16 and U-17 US Soccer Youth National Teams.
