Philadelphia Wings’ forward Athan Iannucci was honored as the NLL’s Reebok Most Valuable Player for the 2008 season.  Iannucci is only the second Wings player to win the award.  Lacrosse great Gary Gait won three straight MVP awards as a member of the Wings between 1995 and 1997.

“Winning the MVP award is a great honor.  I owe my success this season to all of my teammates and coaches who made me a better player out on the field,” said Iannucci.  “I am excited about the future of this team.  We are a young, talented group and we plan to build on the success we had this season.”

 2008 was a historic season for Iannucci, who broke the NLL single-season goal scoring record.  He scored 71 goals in 16 games, ten more goals than Gary Gait’s previous mark (61).  Iannucci also received the NLL’s Player of the Month Award three times (January, February, April), which was a league first.  The 2008 overall scoring title went to Iannucci as well, who was the only player to reach the 100-point plateau (71G, 29A).  He also led all forwards in the NLL in loose balls (138).  Iannucci was selected to his first All-Star Game in 2008 and was the Wings only starter in the game.

In only his second season, Athan is already moving up many of the Wings All-Time lists.  He is sixth on the Wings All-Time goal scoring list (98) and tenth in Wings history in overall scoring with 147 points (98G, 49A).

Iannucci was drafted by the Wings in the first round (eighth overall) in the 2006 NLL Entry Draft, and finished his rookie season with 47 points (27G, 20A) and was third overall in scoring for the Wings.  Before joining the Wings, Iannucci was a standout at Hofstra University where he was the second-leading scorer in 2006 with 80 points (62G, 18A) in 19 games.