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Do IT this week: Layering
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:48 p.m. EST, Nov 07, 2009
ROCKY RIVER: With birthdays come gifts.
And for Walsh Jesuit girls soccer coach Dino McIntyre, the gifts come on the field — with yet another gifted group of players who understand what it takes to practice, work and win.
The Warriors showed that Saturday when they handled Canfield quite easily in a 5-0 Division I regional final at Rocky River High School. The win sends Walsh to the state semifinals, where it will face Medina, one of the two teams it did not beat this season.
Walsh's 1-1 game against Medina was one of two ties in an 18-win, 20-game season.
Saturday the gifted ones were all over the field, chasing down loose balls, scoring into a strong wind from the south and scoring more when they had the wind.
Canfield did not get a shot on goal, compared to Walsh's 18.
The superb play of superbly gifted freshman Sandra Yu carried Walsh to a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Yu scored the first two goals. The first came when she scored on a rebound off a play she had set up, the second when she got behind the defense and her low shot to the left corner dribbled off the hands of the Canfield goalkeeper and into the net.
On just about every play, Yu was quicker, smarter and simply better than her opponent.
And she's a freshman.
''She's a good player already,'' McIntyre said. ''She's physically very, very strong. But she has a burning desire inside her. She has something within her.''
Yu's maturity was evident, as she spoke well after the game about her team and its next game against a team Walsh greatly respects.
''Play on top, keep the ball in their end and keep the pressure on,'' she said of Medina, which will pit its talent and experience against Walsh's talent and youth.
Walsh's other goals came from Elizabeth Bollinger, Kelsey Smigel and (with 11 seconds left) Morgan Miller.
The win was a nice day-after-birthday celebration for McIntyre, who turned 40 on Friday. He did not expect to dominate, but he did know his team had an edge.
''At the end of the day, strength of schedule will always help in games like this,'' he said. ''Our schedule and theirs are two different ones. I know their coach [Phil Simone]. It's no secret. They only play one or two games to the same schedule that we play.
''That's going to make a difference, hopefully.''
When Canfield chose to go with the wind in the first half, McIntyre wanted his team to answer by scoring in the first 15 minutes. It scored in six, as Yu set up Bollinger and then pounced on the rebound.
It went that way for Walsh all day.
Before the game, though, McIntyre left nothing to chance.
While Canfield warmed up, he called his team together and had players sit on the field so he could talk to them at length — in his animated, gesturing way.
Nothing special, he said. He just wanted to remind them of some basics.
''They'd gone three-and-a-half months getting yelled at by me every day. Did they want that to end?'' he said.
McIntyre moved to Cuyahoga Falls from Naples (that's Italy) when he was 14. He was put ahead of his normal grade in school because he tested advanced, so when he got to the University of Akron, he said, he was too young and too small to play.
''My mother said, 'I'm still reading bedtime stories to you. You're not playing,' '' he said.
He started a soccer club with former UA coach Steve Parker and that got him interested in coaching.
A friend kept telling him he had to get involved at Walsh.
''He played and coached here,'' McIntyre said. ''He was like, 'You've got to come to this place.'
''I was like, this place doesn't exist. Not something as good as he was saying.''
Since joining Walsh, McIntyre said, he has had many offers to move on — from other schools and from colleges.
He turned them all down.
''Sometimes you need to know where you find your niche,'' he said. ''I'm not moving my wife or kid just because I want to coach.
''I have a perfect setting here.''
With Walsh two wins away from its fifth state title in nine years, one might offer that the school also has a perfect setting with its coach.
Some gifts just keep on giving.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohio.com/mcmanamon/. Follow Pat on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/patmcmanamon.
ROCKY RIVER: With birthdays come gifts.
And for Walsh Jesuit girls soccer coach Dino McIntyre, the gifts come on the field — with yet another gifted group of players who understand what it takes to practice, work and win.
The Warriors showed that Saturday when they handled Canfield quite easily in a 5-0 Division I regional final at Rocky River High School. The win sends Walsh to the state semifinals, where it will face Medina, one of the two teams it did not beat this season.
Walsh's 1-1 game against Medina was one of two ties in an 18-win, 20-game season.
Saturday the gifted ones were all over the field, chasing down loose balls, scoring into a strong wind from the south and scoring more when they had the wind.
Canfield did not get a shot on goal, compared to Walsh's 18.
The superb play of superbly gifted freshman Sandra Yu carried Walsh to a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Yu scored the first two goals. The first came when she scored on a rebound off a play she had set up, the second when she got behind the defense and her low shot to the left corner dribbled off the hands of the Canfield goalkeeper and into the net.
On just about every play, Yu was quicker, smarter and simply better than her opponent.
And she's a freshman.
''She's a good player already,'' McIntyre said. ''She's physically very, very strong. But she has a burning desire inside her. She has something within her.''
Yu's maturity was evident, as she spoke well after the game about her team and its next game against a team Walsh greatly respects.
''Play on top, keep the ball in their end and keep the pressure on,'' she said of Medina, which will pit its talent and experience against Walsh's talent and youth.
Walsh's other goals came from Elizabeth Bollinger, Kelsey Smigel and (with 11 seconds left) Morgan Miller.
The win was a nice day-after-birthday celebration for McIntyre, who turned 40 on Friday. He did not expect to dominate, but he did know his team had an edge.
''At the end of the day, strength of schedule will always help in games like this,'' he said. ''Our schedule and theirs are two different ones. I know their coach [Phil Simone]. It's no secret. They only play one or two games to the same schedule that we play.
''That's going to make a difference, hopefully.''
When Canfield chose to go with the wind in the first half, McIntyre wanted his team to answer by scoring in the first 15 minutes. It scored in six, as Yu set up Bollinger and then pounced on the rebound.
It went that way for Walsh all day.
Before the game, though, McIntyre left nothing to chance.
While Canfield warmed up, he called his team together and had players sit on the field so he could talk to them at length — in his animated, gesturing way.
Nothing special, he said. He just wanted to remind them of some basics.
''They'd gone three-and-a-half months getting yelled at by me every day. Did they want that to end?'' he said.
McIntyre moved to Cuyahoga Falls from Naples (that's Italy) when he was 14. He was put ahead of his normal grade in school because he tested advanced, so when he got to the University of Akron, he said, he was too young and too small to play.
''My mother said, 'I'm still reading bedtime stories to you. You're not playing,' '' he said.
He started a soccer club with former UA coach Steve Parker and that got him interested in coaching.
A friend kept telling him he had to get involved at Walsh.
''He played and coached here,'' McIntyre said. ''He was like, 'You've got to come to this place.'
''I was like, this place doesn't exist. Not something as good as he was saying.''
Since joining Walsh, McIntyre said, he has had many offers to move on — from other schools and from colleges.
He turned them all down.
''Sometimes you need to know where you find your niche,'' he said. ''I'm not moving my wife or kid just because I want to coach.
''I have a perfect setting here.''
With Walsh two wins away from its fifth state title in nine years, one might offer that the school also has a perfect setting with its coach.
Some gifts just keep on giving.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohio.com/mcmanamon/. Follow Pat on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/patmcmanamon.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
akron, oh
Posted 06:53 PM, 11/07/2009
Dino is the coolest!
Canton, OH
Posted 07:21 PM, 11/07/2009
Parochials. . .
akron, oh
Posted 12:24 AM, 11/08/2009
Do you have a point?
