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A soccer player in an Amherst uniform dribbling a ball
Giammattei is only the second-ever two-time recipient of the highest individual award in Division III men’s soccer.

“Amherst soccer is about so much more than soccer, and German has embodied so many of the ideals that our culture celebrates. There are so many people proud of him today.”

So said men’s head coach Justin Serpone on a Tuesday in December, when striker German Giammattei ’22 won the highest individual award in Division III men’s soccer—for the second time. The honor is the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division III Men’s National Player of the Year title, which Giammattei received the first time as a sophomore in 2019.

Giammattei is only the second two-time recipient since the award was introduced in 1996. The award was not given in 2020, as most teams did not compete, making him the first to win the award consecutively. 

“No matter how you look at it, German had one of the best college careers of any men’s soccer player that’s ever played in DIII,” his coach says. 

In 2021, Giammattei, a team captain, helped lead the Mammoths to their second consecutive national championship game. Throughout the season, he scored 12 goals, five of which were game winners, and added four assists. He led the NESCAC in goals, points and game-winning goals, just as he did in 2019. He scored in the 83rd minute against Williams to break a tie and lift the Mammoths to a 2–1 win. 

But he was at his most dominant when the Mammoths hosted the NCAA sectionals at Hitchcock Field. In the round of 16, he scored a hat trick and added an assist to factor in all four goals in a 4–1 win over SUNY Cortland. The next day, he scored the lone goal in a 1–0 win over Middlebury in the national quarterfinals. 

The Mammoths finished the 2021 season with an overall record of 17–3–2 and a 7–2–1 mark in NESCAC play, and Giammattei ended his senior postseason in a tie for the NCAA tournament lead with four goals, 10 points and two game-winning goals. He won First Team All-NESCAC, All-Region and All-America honors in his final season, as he did in 2019. 

In 64 games over his Amherst career, he scored 45 goals and added 12 assists for 102 points.

“My absolute favorite part about German is that as good of a soccer player as he is, he’s a better teammate and person,” says Serpone. “If you watch the NCAA press conference after the 2019 Final Four win, a game in which he scored three goals, he spends the entire time deflecting praise and pointing out his teammates. He’s uncommonly unselfish and thoughtful of others.”


Photograph by Clarus Studios