Billy Gazonas

Infobox Football biography
playername= Billy Gazonas
fullname = Billy Gazonas
nickname =


dateofbirth =
cityofbirth =
countryofbirth =
height = height|ft=5|in=5
currentclub = Retired
clubnumber =
position = Midfielder
youthyears = 1973-1977
youthclubs = Hartwick College
years = 1978-1980
1981
1981-1982
1983(?)-1986(?)
clubs = Tulsa Roughnecks
Calgary Boomers
New York Arrows "(indoor)"
Kansas City Comets "(indoor)"
caps(goals) = 57 (4)
11 (0)
manageryears =
managerclubs =
pcupdate =
ntupdate =

Billy Gazonas is a former U.S. soccer midfielder who won the 1977 Hermann Trophy as the top collegiate soccer player of the year. He four seasons in the North American Soccer League and several in Major Indoor Soccer League.

Gazonas played soccer on the boy's team at St. Anthony High School in Trenton, New Jersey, and graduated from the school in 1973. In 1999, he was named by "The Star-Ledger" as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1970s [Jandoli, Ron. [http://web.archive.org/web/20030110132039/http://nj.com/hssports/ledger/index.ssf?/hssports/century/stories/bsoccerdecades.html "The Century's Best -- Boys Soccer: Top 10 Players of each decade"] , "The Star-Ledger", November 7, 1999, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 10, 2003. Accessed September 11, 2008.]

He entered Hartwick College that fall where he played on the school’s men's soccer team. Hartwick had a dominant team during Gazonas four years at the school. His freshman year, Hartwick lost to Howard in the NCAA post-season tournament semifinals. In 1976, Hartwick made it to the semifinals before losing to Indiana. However, his senior year, Hartwick made it to the championship game where it defeated the University of San Francisco 2-1 to take the NCAA title. Gazones was team captain. That year, Gazonas was named as a first team All American and won the Hermann Trophy winner as the best collegiate player of the year. This game Hartwick its second consecutive Hermann Trophy winner as Glenn Myernick had won it the year prior.

The Tulsa Roughnecks of the North American Soccer League selected Gazonas with the first pick in the 1977 NASL college draft. He played three seasons as a creative midfielder for the Roughnecks. After the 1980 season, Gazonas moved to the Calgary Boomers for its one season in the NASL. By the end of the 1981 season, the NASL was beginning to contract and Gazonas, who had played in the NASL indoor seasons, jumped to the New York Arrows of Major Indoor Soccer League. That year the Arrows won the MISL championship. Later played with the Kansas City Comets.

After retiring from playing, Gazonas coached professionally.

Hartwick University inducted Gazonas into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. ^{[http://www.hartwick.edu/x12593.xml]}

References