Boyle, Hersey stay focused on the future
Nick Boyle is proof of the old sports axiom where goals win games and defense wins championships.
The Hersey senior, whom coach Darren Llewellyn calls his general, was a member of the 2009 Daily Herald All-Area team last fall. Boyle could see his importance grow this season in the Huskies quest for a fourth straight MSL championship with the recent news that two-time all-area striker and the club's leading scorer Alex Gardasevic is gone for the season after suffering a broken right foot.
"Coach told all of us, with all due respect to Alex, there's no room for a pity party around our club," said the three-year star.
Since coming on board as the head coach, Llewellyn has watched his club confound MSL opponents on match day. The Huskies send many away shaking their collective heads after another 80 minutes of soccer ends in the Huskies favor, despite the run of play clearly on the other side.
"You've got to be impressed with the way Darren has influenced his players and been able to get them to buy into (his) system of playing with patience and organization," said Elk Grove coach Joe Bush. "Some say its boring, and not the way to play the game. But it works and none of us have quite figured out how to solve it."
Boyle is one of the reasons so many foes have trouble scoring on Hersey.
A defensive midfielder his sophomore year, Boyle took over for Mike Mueller as the Huskies sweeper and quickly became one of the best at his position with his hard driving, fierce tackling and non-stop relentless style of play which has made a big impression on his coach.
"Nick is a player who you can completely trust and count on, and a player who (without) a doubt is the leader of our team," Llewellyn said. "He reads the game so well, undertands (it) and has worked so hard to improve his skill level to the point where I would consider him to be of all-state caliber."
"Playing for coach (Llewellyn) is so great because he really cares about us and is a great teacher of the game. He just seems to get everything out of each one of us," offeres Boyle.
The Huskies made the most of their 29 goals scored last season (16 from Gardasevic) by winning 8 of its 12 on the season by just 1 goal, while giving up just 19 in 21 matches.
They allowed just 9 goals in 10 MSL matches, and would shut-out a terrific goal-scoring machine in Barrington in an exciting 1-0 victory in a shoot-out to win its third straight MSL Cup.
"Winning three in a row is cool. I'll admit it," says Llewellyn. "What does it mean? No one had ever done it before, and each time we overcame teams that were better than us on paper, and we came into each match as the underdog.
"Each team will always have that (memory) with them, and that's the best thing about it."
However, Llewellyn has and will remind his lads that the glory fades quickly, and the work never ends to succeed.
The Huskies captain knows this. "We have a terrific keeper (Greg Janicki) and some very good players back and some new guys who can make us better, but I also know that everyone will be coming after us in our division," figures Boyle.
"Prospect had a terrific summer league team, Elk Grove is a year older and better, and Buffalo Grove, Rolling Meadows and Wheeling will once again prove that you cannot take anyone in the MSL lightly on any given night," says Llewellyn. "Like always, it doesn't matter how we start, but instead, how we finish."