When it came time for the boys’ soccer coaches of the Ironclad Conference to decide which of their peers took home Coach of the Year for 2014, there wasn’t even really a vote.

Someone made the statement, “Well, it’s Tordoff,” and no one disputed it.

Nansemond River High School’s Dustin Tordoff received the honor after a regular season in which the Warriors went undefeated in the conference and 10-4 overall, hitting double-digit wins for the first time in the program’s history.

“It’s always rewarding to get recognized for doing the job that you do, so it does mean a lot, and I’m extremely appreciative of it,” Tordoff said of the honor.

He agreed that the biggest reason why he was chosen is due to his team’s dominance, as it scored 51 goals and allowed only 22 during the 14 regular season contests.

“I think that the only reason why I’m the Coach of the Year is because I have a team that puts me in a position to look like I’m the Coach of the Year,” Tordoff said. “I’m only here because the kids are here.”

He noted how his players motivated him to do his best.

“They are the ones out there putting everything they have into it, and I feel like if they don’t get the same from me, then it’s a disservice to them,” he said. “So, if they’re going to give me a hundred percent, then I have to make sure that I give them at least that much.”

Senior team captain Gabe Everette was happy for his coach getting the top honor and said, “In my eyes, he deserved it.”

Everette praised his coach for being down-to-earth and someone who listens to his players rather than being dismissive of them.

He mentioned a helpful way that Tordoff re-designed practices this season. While previously, players would be broken up into separate groups based on position to work on parts of their game, this year everything was done as a team.

This allowed everyone to be on the same page, “and that’s probably one of the reasons why we did so good this year,” Everette said.

Following the regular season, the Warriors made their first appearance in a championship game and achieved their first-ever playoff wins while qualifying for regionals for the first time.

“Just about everything for the season was a first,” Tordoff said.