Recordpub.com - Pirates' soccer program sails into brand new territory

On a late fall night in Palmyra, an unusual sound came beckoning from the Southeast High School soccer field.

The echoes of the school’s Victory Bell rang loudly, possibly for the first time ever for the soccer team. The Pirates had just claimed their first-ever sectional championship, with a 1-0 victory over the Crestwood Red Devils — a team deep with tradition in Portage County soccer history.

Southeast is building a program where success may become commonplace, but for this Pirates team, they were in new territory. And those familiar with the program’s previous 20 years, the celebration of their accomplishment was understood as something very special and something to be very proud of.

The Pirates’ record for the season was 8-6-5, posting just the second winning season in school history to go along with their sectional crown.

After having a couple of weeks to reflect on the season, Southeast head coach Kelly Olszak still was beaming about her team’s achievements.

“The smiles on their faces said it all to me,” said Olszak, who just completed her third year as head coach. “I really can’t describe the amount of pride and the sense of accomplishment the players feel about their season. It really changed the way the community looks at our program and gained the players respect within the school.”

Although, before the rewards that success brings came a lot of hard work.

With a team mostly consisting of underclassmen, Olszak said it was the team’s offseason dedication that made the difference and turned the corner for the program. The Pirates welcomed back only three returning starters, introducing eight new starters and playing as many as five from a talented sophomore class at times.

With that many new faces on the field, team struggles could develop, but not with this group.

“Each player really thought about the team first,” Olszak said. “Their work ethic was incredible, and they just kept meeting challenge after challenge. They are great athletes, great kids and they really raised the level of play to a place I don’t think those in Southeast had ever seen before.”

“We were a team that played smart and with discipline,” Olszak said. “We always kept our composure and rarely got pulled out of position.”

The high level kept the Pirates from losing in 13-of-19 games, with five ties and six shutouts leading the way.

The first shutout and tie of the year came on opening night for the Pirates, who battled to a 0-0 stalemate with West Branch. The tie was the first time in the program’s history that the team did not lose its opener, which Olszak said really created a tone for the entire season.

The shutouts and hard-fought games continued from there. The defense stood tall, the offense was timely and senior goalkeeper David White became known as “The Stonewall.”

White joined the team this year having never played soccer before in his life and left the season the owner of six shutouts and with a nickname he will never forget.

On a team filled with contributing members, it was junior captain Austin Olszak that anchored the defense. Olszak entered the season as the only returning defender with any varsity experience. He made all the defensive calls, holding the responsibility and corresponding success of the defense.

Offensively, the team was led by senior captain Nick Phillips, whose 23 goals netted him a series of postseason awards, including First Team All-Metro Division, First Team All-District and Second Team All-Ohio.

Then there was junior captain Coty Lipply, who controlled the midfield, with every ball played up offensively going through him.

No team ever wants to get ahead of itself, but the future looks very bright for the Pirates.

With a talented nucleaus returning for next season, along with tremendous success with its middle-school program that finished 13-0-1 and won the PTC championship, it looks like the Pirates’ goal of maintaining success and becoming an annual title contender is developing into a reality.

And it will be this year’s team that will hold claim as the ones that got it all started.

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Tom Nader can be contacted at tnader@recordpub.com

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Archived stories by Tom Nader can be found at www.twitter.com/tnader