By Rachel LeGros
In 2009, the Hopkinton Boys Varsity soccer team won the State Championships for the 4th time in a row. With a reputation like that, the other teams in Division III need to step up their game in this 2010 season. The boys are currently 7-1-1 and in 4th place.
Despite the success of the 2009 season, they saw the loss of 10 seniors, one of them being a key starter, the goalie Jay Leblanc. With 87 saves and only 17 goals allowed throughout the entire season, it was hard to see Leblanc go.
At the start of the 2010 season, senior Ben Harrington decided to step up and fill in the goalie position. Harrington had no past experience as a goalie, but he and Coach Scott Zipke had talked about the possibility of Harrington being the goalie after the 2009 season.
When asked if Harrington has been going through extra goalie training, Zipke says that they have been working on and off throughout the season, but it’s less than he had anticipated. This isn’t a problem though, because “Biggie Benz is a naturally gifted athlete,” says Zipke. At the start of the season, Harrington didn’t know when to be aggressive or how to play various balls, but he now knows when to attack and when to stay back. He is also said to have a tendency to fall down, which Ben refers to as “diving.”
Varsity captain Brooks Wood was concerned at the beginning of the season, but once he saw Zipke’s training with Harrington, he was confident in Harrington’s ability to be the goalie. To this, fellow captain Billy French says “samesies.” Both captains say that Harrington has improved by “leaps and bounds.” Unfortunately, goalie Ben Harrington himself could not be reached for comment.
The only question that exists now is with Harrington being a senior this year, who will step up and be goalie for the varsity boys in the 2011 season?
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