Young players Amal Knight and Shamar Nicholson were two of the awardees at the National Stadium on Monday as the curtain came down on the 2016-17 Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) season.

Arnett Gardens FC won the title after clipping Portmore United 2-1 in the final.

But Knight, the University of the West Indies (UWI) FC goalkeeper, was an individual winner of two awards, though his team was eliminated at the semi-final stage of the play-offs.

He was declared the goalkeeper of the year and also took home the Tony Burrowes Award for personality of the year.

Nicholson, the Boys’ Town FC striker, was crowned the best young player after a sterling season in front of goal.

“I feel elated because I trained really hard, so I wanted to go through the season and perform well,” Knight told the Jamaica Observer after the awards presentation.

“This was one of the goals that I set out — I wanted to win the Goalkeeper of the Year Award. The Tony Burrowes Award for personality is a shocker to me because didn’t expect it. I’m just happy for both of them.”

UWI, guided by Head Coach Marcel Gayle, have been a force to be reckoned with since gaining promotion to top flight football at the start of the 2015-16 season. They finished fifth in the preliminary stage of that campaign and were second during the same phase of the just-concluded season.

“We played well throughout the season and it was just unfortunate we missed out [on the final]. We did well and exceeded expectations, because a lot of people didn’t expect us to get this far. We lacked experience toward the latter part of the season and that cost us…it’s a growing team,” said the 23-year-old former Wolmer’s Boys’ goalkeeper.

Next season marks UWI’s third in the RSPL, and Knight is already looking toward another strong performance.

“This was wonderful for UWI and we can only look forward. The coach’s mentality is important and at UWI we are a family, and everyone believes we can go all the way,” said the six-foot three-inch tall shot blocker.

He also has his eyes trained on national duty with the senior Reggae Boyz after a recent call to the practice squad.

“I got a national call and it’s up to me to put God first and train hard, and hopefully the coach will select me,” Knight said.

Nicholson, 20, was not surprised at the recognition, after he scored 14 goals to lead a struggling Boys’ Town team that finished 10th in the 12-team league.

“This is because of the hard work that I’ve put in, so it’s not a surprise to me. It’s very hard [as a young player], but at the end of the day I’m a striker and it’s my job to score goals, and when I do that I think it motivates the defence to keep the backline steady,” he said.

There were stages when former national club champions Boys’ Town appeared set to be relegated, but a late season spurt kept them just shy of danger.

“I knew Boys’ Town weren’t going to be relegated. There were misunderstandings within the team, but we fixed them and had to come again,” explained the tall attacker.

He was top marksman during the opening two rounds of the preliminary season, and finished just one goal short of the league-leading 15 scored by Tivoli Gardens FC star player Jermaine Johnson.

Nicholson’s heroics also grabbed the eyes of the Reggae Boyz Head Coach Theodore Whitmore, who summoned him to join the senior squad.