HHS Boys Soccer 2014 Season Outlook
The season has started out well for the Hanover Boys Soccer program. The Varsity and JV teams both won their opening season games and look forward to exciting and challenging seasons.
After finishing a 2013 undefeated season ( 19-0-1) and winning the Division 1 State Championship vs Alvirne ( 2-1), the former Marauders Varsity soccer team graduated 9 seniors. The current Marauders Varsity soccer team is working on building a new cohesive team. The key to the teams’ success will be their extreme depth and flexibility. If the team continues to develop its chemistry , then another Championship win is within the realm of possibility.
This year, the Varsity team has 25 players, including 11 seniors, 7 juniors, 6 sophomores, 1 freshman, led by co-captains Andrew Kazal and Luke Strohbehn.
The Varsity coach, Rob Grabill is entering his 12th year as coach at HHS and his love of the sport is obvious given that he has been a player or coach of soccer for over 46 years! Coach Grabill reminds the team that, in addition to being soccer players, we are also members of a bigger community, and thus should be good citizens, as well as good soccer players. The 2013 Varsity team won the Class 1 Sportsmanship Award and hope to again this year.
The Varsity is fortunate to have 2 outstanding assistant coaches this year, Ben Snyder and Tommy Clark. We are grateful for their time and look forward to learning from their vast soccer wisdom.
Coach Mike Callanan returns for his 10th year as JV Coach, this being his 48th year of coaching. The JV team has 23 excellent players, who hope to repeat last year’s season which finished by winning the Division 1 JV Championship. In addition, Coach Callanan was honored as the 2013 Division 1 JV Coach of the Year!
Coach Rob Edson returns for his 3rd year as head Coach of the Freshmen. This year’s team has 20 talented players, who are fit and ready to play a great season.
Coach Willie Johnson returns for his 2nd year as head Coach of the Reserve team. This year’s reserve team had an excellent turn out with 35 players on the roster, all talented and true game players.
The soccer program is also excited to have 4 foreign exchange students with us in the soccer program this year, all excellent soccer players.
In addition to the 4 Head coaches and 2 assistant varsity coaches, Erik McEwen, a HHS graduate and current member of the HHS staff, will be an assistant coach for all three subvarsity teams.
Lastly, we are grateful to all who support our team, including our coaches, our parents and all the businesses in our community who help make the season successful.
Look forward to seeing you at a soccer game.
