Freshman soccer player Joe Gannon has every right to brag after having accumulated a striking cache of honors and statistics in his first season as a collegiate athlete. Gannon, however, is modest. "I think I played pretty well this season," said the emerging NESCAC star. Opposing teams would agree. Gannon made his presence known less than 17 minutes into his first collegiate competition, assisting midfielder Chris Kane '03 on the first Amherst goal of the season in an eventual loss to Tufts University. Gannon also had an assist in the second game of the season in a 4-0 victory at Keene State on Sept. 19 before finding the back of the net in the team's first conference victory against Bates College two days later. On Oct. 2, Gannon had his first college hat trick in a 7-1 romp over Springfield College.

Midway through the season, Gannon and the rest of the Lord Jeffs really caught fire. He scored two goals in a win against Connecticut College on Oct. 10, to begin a nine game winning streak that carried the team to the NESCAC championship game.

During the next eight victories, Gannon had seven assists and three goals, scoring points in all but two of those matches.

One of Gannon's assists came in a 3-0 victory over Williams College during Family weekend. Although there were other games where he had more points and scored key goals, Gannon counts this first experience with the Jeffs' Little III rival as a season highlight, along with qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

Gannon was as productive in NCAA tournament play as he was during the regular season. In the second half of a 1-0 victory over SUNY-Cortland, Gannon scored the only goal of the game to give Amherst its sole tournament win. Gannon began the scoring play with a breakaway, but the goalkeeper deflected his initial shot. However, Gannon kept his composure and was ready for senior captain Carlo Valdesolo's pass, which he converted into the game winner.

Gannon "made probably the biggest difference between this year and last year in terms of scoring." said quad-captain Chris Kane '04. The team finished the 2001 campaign with a record of 7-6-2, losing in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC. Though the squad was talented, no player scored more than four goals or tallied more than 11 points. The team tallied 67 points as a whole in 2001. In 2002, the Jeffs totaled 129 points, with four players in the double digits.

The freshman phenom has been playing soccer since the age of six. In high school, he played for Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass. alongside Amherst teammates, captain Roger Boulay '03, Mike York '04 and fellow freshman Ian Lovett. The presence of his high school teammates was one of the reasons why Gannon chose to attend Amherst. Gannon left Nobles as the school's all-time leading scorer. He led their league in scoring for three seasons and was named to the All-State Prep Team during his junior and senior seasons.

Gannon had little trouble adjusting to collegiate play despite the extremely physical nature of NESCAC soccer. According to Kane, the Massachusetts native had no problems "in terms of athletic ability and skill" and was served well by his superior speed. Only Gannon was surprised by his own success, as his Nobles teammates had made the rest of the team well-aware of his goal-scoring prowess. Coming into the season, Gannon "didn't expect anything," and was surprised by his personal success, but not by the team's. "I thought our team was really good, with some really skilled players," he said. "I hadn't played in the league before, but we were good enough to go as far as we did." With Gannon on the roster for three more seasons, the Lord Jeffs should continue to succeed.