RVA Football Club’s Grover Gibson was awarded the Alexander Arellano Memorial Trophy as the National Premier Soccer League’s (NPSL) Coach of the Year. In its inaugural season, RVA finished unbeaten with a 10-0-2 record, winning the Mid-Atlantic Conference and South Region title to go with its national title.

The award is named in honor of the son of Real San Jose owner Nick Arellano, who passed away in March of 2012.

“I’m very honored to represent what this award stands for in regards to the Real San Jose club and family,” the coach posted on the NPSL Facebook page. “A coach can only be as good as the people that surround him and I’m very fortunate to be accompanied by an amazing staff, players and fans.”

Gibson, who played professionally in Germany for 13 years before retiring in 2009 while with Rot-Weiss Ahlen after a serious eye injury, who grew up playing soccer all over Virginia before joining VfB Stuttgart U18s out of high school, helped lead RVA to the NPSL National Championship with a 2-0 win over the Sonoma County Sol on Sunday at Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond, Va.