As the HHS Boys’ soccer season comes to a close, winning the Hancock tournament in mid-September still stands out as a highlight.
In the Hancock tournament, HHS played against three different teams. The first being Cardinal Ritter, followed by McCluer North, and then Valemeyer. In the final against Valeymer, HHS won the game with a final score of 1-0.
“The Final was the best for me because we overcame the red card and won a one goal game,” Head Coach Bob Brotherton said.
The lone goal was scored by Haider Waheed (12), who has played soccer all four years of his high school career. Kevin Nash (11) was in goal at the time and he was able to keep a clean sheet for the game.
“It was a great feeling to see this group of players achieve together,” Brotherton said. “For the seniors, it was a long time coming with all the struggles they have battled through. For the young guys, they know what success feels like, so hopefully they want more.” Brotherton said.
While it was a one goal game, Brotherton says it was a team effort. “The entire group impacted our success in a positive way, it was not one or two players,“ he said.
Brotherton also attributes the team’s success to the work they put in during training and having the players to do so and working as a team to make this happen.
“The attitude and approach of the players is much better, as well as our newer players have some soccer and/or athletic ability also,” he said.
The team was working hard to work together on and off the pitch while having the right mindset and wanting to prove to other teams that they are HHS, and they can achieve anything they set their minds to.
“For most of the tournament, I thought we had a really solid approach to what we wanted to accomplish,” Brotherton added.
Brotheton believes that with this group of players that we have, and winning the tournament, the team can work back to what they used to be and aim for achieving bigger goals in the season.
“It’s been a long time since we put any trophies in the trophy case, hopefully this is a starting point to returning the program to the competitive levels we’ve been at in the past,” Brotherton said.
Brotherton hopes the tournament win would set the stage for the rest of the season.
“The rest of the season as always is up to the players,” Brotherton said. “Hopefully they all stay engaged and continue wanting to improve.”
Brotherton knows that this team can be a better team and improve even more than they have. They know how far the players can go and they hope they can keep growing and be at the level of play that they want to be.
“The boys have come a long way from where we were but not anywhere close to where the coaches know these boys can go,” Brotherton said.
