Penn Hills boys soccer battles adversity throughout challenging season

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, October 18, 2018 | 9:09 PM

Sports can be used as a vehicle to teach many life lessons to teenage athletes.

As Penn Hills boys soccer coach Ryan Hankey was looking to change the culture with his team, the Indians were faced with adversity multiple times.

During the offseason, Hankey established an offseason program he believed was going to propel the program from the winless season they had the year before. However, the Indians season almost didn’t get off the ground when the team was shut down for undisclosed reasons for two weeks prior to the start of the campaign.

Penn Hills (2-16, 1-13 in Section 3-4A) started with a 2-1 win over Carrick in nonsection play on Aug. 31 to give the Indians their first win since 2016.

The Indians thought they could move forward and continue to grow. However, the Indians faced more adversity when Connellsville players allegedly called Penn Hills players by racial slurs.

In the moment, Hankey wanted to make sure his players treated the situation in the correct manner.

“I wasn’t even watching the game anymore. I had to settle them down and tell the rights and wrongs about that action. Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Hankey said.

“After the game, I talked to the team for 10 or 15 more minutes, and I tried to tell them that sometimes it happens in sports. People try rattle you and make you act erratic and make you look bad. I praised them on doing the right things and not overacting and retaliating. Unfortunately, the world isn’t the way we want it to be.”

As those involved in the soccer program had to deal with the numerous meetings that followed the incident, Hankey cites the incident as another distraction that prevented him from further developing his players.

“I feel bad for the kids. They had to go through another distraction for the season. Two distractions in a season is pretty rough. To get their mind focused away from soccer probably hurt,” Hankey said.

Junior midfielder Ian Krieger led the Indians with six goals this season, however, he missed time with a concussion.

Junior goalkeeper AJ Collins, sophomore forward Jonah Silverman and freshman defender Charlie Rosemeyer joined Krieger on the injury list this season.

At one point, the Indians were forced to play senior goalkeeper Khari Smith, a first-year soccer player, when junior goalkeeper Jesse Ternent had to miss time.

The Indians found some offense to start the season as they netted 10 goals in their first seven games. Penn Hills scored a season-high in a 3-2 win over Woodland Hills in Section 3-4A action Sept. 13.

Penn Hills only found the net three more times in the remaining 11 games. The Indians were shut out eight times this season, which is down from 12 last season.

The Penn Hills soccer program had only 22 players on the roster to start the season and was unable to field a junior varsity team. Before the season, Hankey was worried about that decision. However, with all the injuries he was forced to start younger and inexperienced players at the varsity level.

“After the Woodland Hills game, it started to go downhill with everyone getting hurt. We started putting in people that didn’t have the experience to play,” Hankey said.

“The positive I’m getting out of this is that a lot of freshmen, sophomores and juniors got playing time in different positions. They know the speed of high school varsity soccer.”

With a young team this season, Hankey will have most of the team returning next year. Hankey will look to the continued development of junior defenders Mike DeVito and Javon Williams as well as freshman defender Tyler Stewart and freshman midfielder Joshua Lee.

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn Hills