Wronski’s creative ability key for Huntley

It’s probably never a good idea to trash talk a star athlete.

Just ask Huntley standout senior forward Aimee Wronski.

During a recent practice, one of the Huntley boys’ soccer players was helping out in goal.

“He was kind of messing with me,” Wronski laughs. “He said I couldn’t get it past him.”

Huntley coach Kris Grabner provided this play-by-play of the incident.

“She carried the ball to the left probably 15 or 18 yards out and was running parallel to the goal 5 yards wide,” the coach explains. “She turned and released a left-footed ball to the far post. He had no idea it was coming. He just stood there.”

So about that trash-talking?

“I guess I kind of put it past him,” Wronski says, slyly.

Situations like those where Wronski unleashes the element of surprise or when something is created out of nothing are part of the foundation of this talented and prolific scorer.

And Wronski’s ability to create is part of the reason Huntley comes into the season so highly regarded — with a national ranking to boot.

“I may never see another player again on the girls’ side create opportunities like Aimee can,” Grabner notes. “She can strike a ball and score at any time. She can do that from any distance within reason. If we had nobody up top with her, I would expect that she would do the same things. She’s so creative with making opportunities for herself and for her teammates.”

Wronski, who is headed to Illinois State University next season, feels her ability to create opportunities comes with the territory.

“It kind of comes naturally,” says Wronski, the 2010 honorary captain of the Daily Herald’s All-Area team after helping Huntley go 21-4-1 and 9-1 in conference play. “Being a forward, you have those instincts that you can do that. You have that type of mentality when you get in those situations.”

While being all for pulling a goal out of thin air, Wronski gets more excited when she’s helping others create.

“I love creating stuff and I love scoring,” she states. “But I like when I’m part of the front end of creating something and I get to see one of my teammates score a goal. To be able to create a scoring opportunity for someone else is a pretty good feeling. I love being a forward. My job is to score and I score goals, but when a defender or a center midfielder scores and I’m part of it and have helped contribute, that’s when you have that good feeling.”

Grabner has noticed a change in Wronski heading into the 2011 season.

“She seems stronger,” he notes. “She always has a great attitude, but she’s stronger. Her speed has always been exceptional. I’m anxious to get started and see what she does.”

Wronski, however, admits she is going to have to get used to going in the air for head balls once again. She suffered a nasty head injury during the club season when she collided with an opposing player that was wearing headgear to protect against concussions.

“The protection worked for her, I guess,” laughs Wronski, who played for the Crystal Lake Force club team this past season. “It was a head-to-head collision. I got 7 stitches above the eye. I got the most of it. It was pretty scary and pretty bloody.

“I guess I have to overcome the fear of heading the ball in the air. I’m getting back to it, but it’s something I have to work on. Hopefully it comes back to me. I wasn’t always the strongest at that. It’s always been a weakness for me, but I was starting to get stronger and was at my peak with it when that happened. I’m going to try and not remember it and go out there and give it my best.”

Wronski, who had 66 career goals and 29 career assists heading into this season, knows the current season is filled with high expectations from outside sources.

“Our team has a lot of expectations,” she says. “We’ve set some goals that we hope to accomplish, but we’re going to have to work hard at it. I think we can do it. We’re going to pretty strong this year. We put it all aside, but we know it’s there. We’re not focusing on rankings. We’re focusing on the games. If we practice and train how we should be, we’re going to meet those goals and expectations.”

At the same time, Wronski also wrestles with the fact this is her final season at Huntley — something that elicits both happiness and sadness.

“It’s exciting and it’s sad,” she says. “It’s really sad that I’ve played with these girls for so long and the seniors on the team are going to be going their separate ways. It’s very exciting that each person on this team is now an extremely good player. We work so well together. It’s been a total team effort to get us where we are today. It’s exciting knowing we all did this together. It’s our last season together and that’s going to make us strive even harder and push even harder to do what we can. It’s a now or never type of thing.”

With Wronski leading the way, it’s now for the Red Raiders.