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Huskies give Konrad his 'most enjoyable' season By Gary Larsen
Naperville North soccer did just that in 2009. “This has been by far my most enjoyable year of coaching,” Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. “The guys were a joy to be around and they made the school proud.” North’s season ended with Wednesday’s sectional semifinal loss to Wheaton Warrenville South, a 1-0 game that went almost 4 overtimes before the Tigers scored the game-winner. The goal that WW South’s Drew Bellmer scored is one that Huskies keeper Mike Wiest won’t soon forget, but he should also never forget this: “He’s the best keeper I’ve ever coached. He kept us in game after game after game this year.” Wiest had 14 shutouts this year, including a string of 8 in a row, and only gave up 12 goals in 23 games. The Huskies finished the year tied for 21st all-time in Illinois for fewest goals allowed in a season. Without Wiest, that simply would not have happened. North’s back line stood tall, to be sure, but North’s big senior keeper had as fine a season in net as any you’ll see in a high school season. “We would have been under .500 without him,” Huskies senior Chris Boswell said. “If we didn’t have Mike Wiest we would have lost our first playoff game. He was ridiculous against Naperville Central (a 1-0 Huskies win) and at the Morton tournament.” Boswell and Wiest were the marquee seniors on this year’s squad, with Boswell playing in his fourth state playoff series for Konrad as a varsity player. “Boz is a special kid. How can you not love a kid that works that hard?” Konrad said. “He just puts his head down and gets after it.” As Konrad said earlier this year of Boswell: “He’s better than everyone here and he’s still the hardest-working one out there.” Boswell led the charge for another hard-working Huskies team. “We’ll fight hard every year, even if we’re not as talented. This year we had a lot of young players, but we worked our (backsides) off,” Boswell said. “That’s what it came down to all year.” Sophomore forward Evan Trychta took the area by storm this year, as he and Boswell provided the vast majority of the 41 goals North scored in 2009. Kyle Lindberg and Lee Grander are two more key sophomores that will return in 2010. The Huskies finished 16-3-4, won the DuPage Valley Conference title for the 18th time in the past 23 seasons, and won the downstate Morton tournament on September 19. Defenders Grander, junior Jimmy Butler, and seniors Ramsey Elshafei and Jake Remegi came together as a first-time varsity back line, and fought tooth-and-nail all year. The loss to the Tigers effectively ended the high school careers of a quality group of North seniors. “Dean Gastouniotis had moments of brilliance this year, and Marc Deetjen came through for us on the outside,” Konrad said. “We needed someone to stick and he was the one that won that spot and hung on. He’s such a smart, do-everything type kid.” “I couldn’t be more proud of my guys. They played exceptionally hard tonight. They battled for 120 minutes.”
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Naperville North's 2009 Schedule
Postseason play
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Two years ago, ex-Naperville North player Jordan Baker was carted off a soccer field with a severely injured shoulder. As he was being carted away, Baker shouted “Give ‘em hell, Huskies!”