Coach's corner: Inside the mind of a goalkeeper

Sometimes you chase the story, sometimes the story chases you. And other times the story nearly hits you in the stomach.

This happened to me recently during my nice, peaceful, sometimes meditational, walk I take looping the back of the Park Center and the beautiful Gallery Park in Glenview.

Suddenly breaking up this quiet cerebral bliss was a couple soccer balls headed directly my way, which I quickly deflected using some smooth footwork and an aging, but still dependably accurate, left foot.

But as I looked up to observe the soccer action on the field, I noticed something a bit different. They weren't actually playing a game. There were no up and down the pitch drills or any full-speed dribbling or passing. Instead, just small groups of players taking turns as goalie.

My interest piqued and my meditational walk already interrupted, I decided to go over and check it out.

It was, indeed, a clinic just for goalies. No position soccer players needed. The kids ranged in age from 8 to 17, and there were a lot of them. It got me thinking: What drives a young player to want to be a goalie? Is there a certain psychological makeup geared toward the position? A particular sociological type?

To get my answer, I went straight to the top - clinic director Tom Paparounis, longtime "goalie guy" and creator of the Drive Goalkeeping camps and clinics.

Paparounis, a Baltimore native and college soccer goalie moved to the Chicago area to be near friends and family and ended up staying, serving stints as goalie coach for both men's and women's soccer at Loyola University.

Paparounis had his own take on why some kids want to be goalies.

"At first, it is the excitement of it all," he said. "It's the diving, the flying around, the shot stopping, the booting the ball for long kicks - all are a natural draw to many of our young soccer players."

Then Paparounis shared an interesting observation: "At a certain point, though, the attitude and the job changes. As you move up in travel ball or high school, the pressure and the responsibility of being a goalkeeper increases, and some players thrive on that while others do not, so they tend to drop out. The goalkeeper position is definitely not for everyone," he said emphatically.

Doing a deeper dive into the mind of a goalkeeper, I checked in with Glenbrook North class of 2021 varsity goalie Jett Greene, and Glenbrook South class of 2020 starting goalie Jessica Ehlinger.

Jett started playing goalie at the age of 8, and he still remembers the breakthrough moment: "I was a striker back then and loved scoring goals, but one day we played a game in practice called goalie wars. Everybody shot and everybody played goalie, and I saved everything. Nobody could get it by me. I was diving and flopping all around and making great saves. From that moment on, I fell in love with the position and never played anything else."

At the higher levels," Jett adds. "It is as much a mental skill as it is physical. You have to be able to handle the pressure, because one mistake and you could cost your team the game."

Ehlinger, who is now headed to University of Illinois, agreed with Greene.

"Pressure is a big part of it," she said, "and in a crucial game one mistake can really cost you, but on the other hand, there is nothing better than making a big save in a big game."

Ehlinger started playing goalie at the age of 8, just like Jett, but her reason for playing the position was much different.

"Basically," she says, "nobody else wanted to play goalie and I was tall, so I volunteered. Every team I played on along the way it seemed no one wanted to play goalie, so I kind of just grew into the position over the years."

Paparounis added one more thing about today's goalies. "They are much more than simply shot stoppers," he says. "Now they have to be athletic and skilled in dribbling, passing footwork, etc. Goalies have become part of the teams possession passing game and can actually be the first line in the offensive set up for scoring possibilities."

So there you have it. More than you probably ever wanted to know about what it takes to be a goalie, all because I innocently wandered into the fray and almost got nailed by a few flying soccer balls.

Note that if any of our young Glenview or Northbrook soccer players are interested in trying goaltending, there are more opportunities to come this summer. Coach P and The Drive Soccer Camps will be offering another two hours goalie clinic at Gallery Park on Saturday, Aug. 22.

As Greene and Ehlinger said, there is no better feeling than "the shot and a save!"

Information about the camps and clinics is available at DriveGK.com.

• Jon Cohn of Glenview is a coach, retired PE teacher, sports official and just an all-around local sports fan. Any topics you'd like to see him tackle? Email glenbrooknews@dailyherald.com and include "Coach's Corner" in the subject line.