Boys soccer: York's Kohl earns DuPage County All-Area Captain

Ryder Kohl makes many decisions each day, but it was one that the York senior made a couple years ago that changed his young life.

"It's been crazy awesome," Kohl explained. "When my former teammate, Kacper Janowski and I made the jump from club over to high school, it was the best decision we could've ever made. The sense of community we made by winning the state championship was awesome and it's something we'll never forget."

While last year's 23 wins and first state title won't be forgotten, Kohl and the Dukes have shown this autumn that they're no one-hit wonder either, but a program looking to sustain their success on the sport's biggest stage. They took a 20-0-3 record into last weekend's Class 3A state tournament before a pair of 1-goal losses left York with a fourth-place state trophy.

For everything he's brought to the Dukes, Kohl, who also earned all-state honors among his accolades, has been named the captain of the 2022 Daily Herald DuPage All-Area Boys Soccer Team.

"I feel like since I was a little kid I've always wanted to be the person that wins," he said. "I feel like that's who I am as a person, someone willing to do anything to help my team have success."

Childhood games over the years against his older cousin and younger brother always were battles to not only acquire the sweet taste of victory, but to do it at the cost of respected opponents.

"Well, my cousin and my brother, we always pushed each other to be better," he said. "Now I'm a part of a group that's never satisfied. We always want more. We want the same result as last year but we haven't proven anything yet. We're working on getting better so we can get that end result of another state championship."

One certainly has to wonder what more a player of Kohl's level could bring to a team after helping it win a state title. Not only has he continued to enhance his skills, he's taken on a leadership by example role and become a potent offensive threat while also continuing to lead the back line.

"We already knew he was at such a skill level already and even a random bystander could tell that he has that demeanor that he's something special," York coach Jordan Stopka said. "He jumps off the paper when you're watching a game and that's fairly apparent from the get-go. You can tell if you were supposed to see a certain player because you'll know two minutes into the game."

Some teams have guys that lead the team through motivational speeches behind the scenes and barking out tactical instructions in practice and in games. Kohl certainly provides inspiration, guidance and motivation for the Dukes, many who truly are newcomers this season. Sophomore goalkeeper Diego Ochoa and defenders Mateusz Janowski, Soren Moore and Stefan Rebic, midfielders William Czech and Michael Greco and forward Jayden Waski are some of the many new faces contributing substantially this fall. York also has standouts Joe Hernandez in the midfield and José Herrera at forward that are helping guide the team while Kohl excels by doing what he does so well on the field.

"He's always ready to go all in with training and he knows when kids are dogging it," Stopka said. "He always comes ready to play and he sets the tone. Some guys are rah-rah and loud guys, while he's someone who leads by example."

He also does things that are difficult to comprehend if you don't see him do it.

Entering last Tuesday's Class 3A Streamwood supersectional game, Kohl had scored 8 goals and added 12 assists as a center back. Last season he had one goal and a few assists.

"He's developed a good relationship with Mike Greco, our holding mid, and he jumps passes," Stopka said. "All of sudden you'll see his captain's armband and bleached hair. He'll bait you and it'll look like he's squaring a kid up and he'll jump in when the first opportunity knocks so he can run onto it and go with it."

Consider the fact that Kohl has 28 points and the Dukes have only surrendered 16 goals this season. Centerbacks aren't supposed to do so much while making things so difficult for their opposition.

"He knows when you attack and when not to attack and we have a running joke and call him the 'assassin' on free kicks," Stopka said. "He is so killer. We weren't playing well in our first playoff game and he scored two of our goals on free kicks and some of the kids and I were talking and saying that he's better on free kicks from 25 yards out with four kids on a wall then some kids are 12 yards away with just a goalie."

He contributed two assists to help draw against St. Charles East, had an assist to help beat OPRF in their conference opener. He delivered a goal and an assist in a win against a Hinsdale Central team that won a sectional title. In the regional, he scored twice in the semifinal victory against Hoffman Estates and scored the lone goal in a thrilling 1-0 victory over upset-minded Glenbard North.

"He just has an uncanny ability to take it to the next level," Stopka said. "I'd love to watch him on TV someday."

Stopka certainly won't ever forget him, especially now that he and his wife have a Ryder of their own.

"My wife came to all the playoffs games last year and (Kohl) was always in the starting lineup so she heard his name (Ryder) over and over again," Stopka said. "She fell in love with the name so our son's name is Ryder."