Breakthrough year
Close wasn’t going to be good enough for Billy McElroy. Not this year.
The University High School senior soccer player came one game away from reaching the state Class 4A soccer tournament twice during his first three seasons as a Titan.
“We lost one game away from the state tournament twice,” he said. “We weren’t going to let that happen again. A group of us seniors got together at the beginning of the season and we just decided that we were going to do whatever it takes to get into the state tournament.”
This year U-Hi broke through, knocking off Lewis and Clark in the District 8 4A championship game, playing first-round playoff game Friday at Pasco.
“The thing of it is, we’ve been too good to not be part of the state tournament,” McElroy said. “We’d go off to play for our club teams and everyone would be comparing notes on how far their school teams had gone at state. It was tough to listen to because we never got there.”
McElroy joined the University varsity as a freshman, coming off the bench to help out a senior-dominated squad. Since that time he’s been a starting midfielder.
Coach Kevin Houston’s University program annually is blessed with strong players with premier and select club soccer credentials.
“We’ve always had strong teams and we’ve had some really outstanding players,” McElroy said. “But we haven’t always played like we were a great team. Sometimes, when you have outstanding players, you tend to play to them. You take your cue from them, and because they’re such strong players, teams focus their defense on stopping them.”
That was the case the first four times University reached the playoffs under Houston: one district playoff game and the Titans postseason was done.
The Titans eight seniors – Bryce Burchak, Brad Maier, Trent Hemingway, David Sanders, Aaron Anderberg, Christian Holloway, Brett Gieber and McElroy – were determined to not end their careers on a sour note.
“We just weren’t going to see it go that way again,” he said. “You like to leave a program in better shape than when you found it, and that’s what we’ve tried to do. We decided we weren’t going to let egos get in the way of winning soccer games. We concentrated on bringing everybody together and making sure we all worked together to reach our goal.
“It feels really good to have accomplished that goal.”
No knock on past U-Hi teams, the senior midfielder insisted. It’s just that great teams have a way of becoming greater than the sum of their parts.
“When you don’t have that one really outstanding player, everyone knows that they have to raise their own game up a level,” he said. “It’s not that you don’t want to play with great players – you’d love to have those guys back. But at the same time, not having them can force you to become a better team. That’s what we tried to do this year.”
As always, University fielded a tough defensive team.
Maier, Burchak and Hemingway headlined a hard-nosed defense that gave opposing teams headaches while junior goalkeeper Ryan Dixon elevated his game to match.
“We’ve always had tough defenders back there,” McElroy said. “Those guys back there all do a great job. It’s tough to score on us and it’s a lot easier to make plays up front when you know you have guys like that backing you up. You can take a chance or two when a play presents itself.
“That’s what we worked on – making plays instead of feeding players. Teams can’t focus on stopping one player because we have too many guys who can score goals.”
McElroy did his part. As a junior, the midfielder scored three goals and assisted on three more.
This year he stepped up his own goal-scoring, finding the back of the opponent’s goal eight times and assisting on a ninth.
The Titans finished 8-2 in the Greater Spokane League, tied with Lewis and Clark a game behind league champion East Valley, which plays a first-round state Class 3A playoff game today at 2 p.m. at Gonzaga Prep.
University was the lone GSL team to knock off the Knights in league and the Titans took a three-game win streak into Edger Brown Stadium Friday.