Editors' picks: Athletes of the year

Amongst a collection of ACC championships and lofty achievements this year, there are select individuals that earned their flowers during the 2024 seasons. 

To cap off coverage of UNC athletics in 2024, The Daily Tar Heel's sports editing staff selected their contenders for 2024 Athlete of the Year.

Charly Bruder

UNC field hockey's  Ryleigh Heck tends to receive the attention, accumulating honors as the reigning National Player of the Year and 2024's ACC Offensive Player of the Year. But sophomore forward Charly Bruder shouldered much of UNC's offensive efforts in 2024. 

As a top team in drawing penalty corners, totaling 195 for the season and averaging 9.29 per game, Bruder was the backbone of UNC's corner unit, taking most of the shots for the Tar Heels.

Her “wind-up rocket” — a difficult-to-defend shot cranked by a powerful swing — scored UNC 27 goals this season. She averaged over one goal a game, leading the nation.  

In the ACC tournament, she led all players with five goals in three games, tied for second-most all-time. Named ACC tournament MVP, Bruder both scored and orchestrated the set-up of UNC's corner goals in its 4-1 victory in the championship.   

When North Carolina's season came to a close after a 2-1 loss to St. Joseph's in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, it was Bruder who scored the lone goal — on a penalty corner, no less. 

Throughout a dominant run in the regular season and ACC tournament, the Tar Heels turned to Bruder for finding the back of the cage. And more often than not, she delivered. 

— Caroline Wills, sports editor

RJ Davis

After missing the 2022 NCAA tournament, all eyes fell on how men's basketball would bounce back. 

Most found comfort in the fact that Armando Bacot returned for his fifth year and would likely be UNC's spine. But someone else captured the spotlight: RJ Davis.

Davis had one of the best UNC seasons in college basketball history. He was a consensus first team All-American, the first North Carolina guard to do so since Joseph Forte in 2001. Furthermore, Davis became just the fifth UNC guard to win ACC Player of the Year, joining elite company with Michael Jordan, Phil Ford, Forte and Ty Lawson. Davis also added the Jerry West Award, given to the best shooting guard in the country — the first Tar Heel to do so.

In February against Miami, he exploded for 42 points in the Dean E. Smith Center, and that was after a career-high 36-point outing against Wake Forest just over a month earlier. 

And while it's easy to point out his abysmal shooting performance against Alabama in last year's NCAA Sweet 16 — one of the contributing factors for why North Carolina lost — the Tar Heels never would have been in that position without him. 

Despite a slow start to the 2024-25 season after being named a preseason first team All-American, it’s still Davis' team, and it's not a slump that one would expect to last the whole season.

– Matthew Maynard, assistant sports editor

Vance Honeycutt 

Some people are born with the clutch gene and Vance Honeycutt has it. 

Before being drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft by the Orioles in 2024, the center fielder helped lead the Tar Heels to their first College World Series appearance since 2018. To earn the top-8 spot, UNC's all-time home run leader hit two moon shots against LSU in game three of the Chapel Hill Regional. 

He hit a walk-off homer against West Virginia in the Super Regional. And he ended the game against Virginia in a similar fashion during the Tar Heels' first game of the CWS. 

Outside of those game-winning moments, Honeycutt was the only player in the Power 4 conferences to finish his time at UNC with more than 60 home runs and 70 stolen bases. His 65 career home runs are the fourth most in ACC history. He was the first Tar Heel to receive the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. He was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024.

Last year, he led the ACC in runs scored, tied the conference lead for home runs and ranked third for stolen bases. The list of accolades just continued. 

So, it's safe to say this to summarize it all: He has aura. 

— Emma Moon, assistant sports editor

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