Glenbard North finds positives
during topsy-turvy season
Seniors balance final year joy while preparing returnees for the fall
By Chris Walker
High school soccer has lost some of its shine for Glenbard North senior goalkeeper Martin Argirov. While that’s sad it’s also understandable during an unprecedented time where little seems to make sense.
It’s just not the same experience Argirov envisioned. The senior has spent four years on the varsity. When someone is as talented and driven like he is, it’s got to be extremely difficult to maintain your focus and desire to play the game you cherish when: you lose your full fall season; don’t have a postseason opportunity; are forced to play with a mask; can’t hang out with your teammates and friends; can’t look into the stands to see friends and family having a good time rooting you on; and can’t do the other fun things seniors before you have done. The can’ts just can’t stop adding up.
“It’s fun to play and all, but it’s nothing like every other year has been,” he said. “We used to get together and have food and hang out as a team, and we can’t do that. With all the precautions we have to take, it kind of feels like a chore. In the past years it felt like being in a family, and we got to really know each other. This year we’re just going to practice and playing.”
Argirov hopes to play after high school, but his pursuits there have stalled.
“I’m looking to play in college, but I don’t know where,” he said. “I was planning on D I at a bigger school, but with all the COVID and dead periods it’s been difficult to get offers. I’m looking at smaller schools but still looking forward to playing at a bigger school as well.”
The pandemic has highlighted that high school soccer, and prep sports in general, are far more than the practices and the games on the field.
It’s also the team bonding, the family the team becomes, the opportunity to play in front of friends and family and finally the passing of the torch to those who will be back to lead the team in the fall.
Kids like Argirov, who have seen how a normal campaign works over the past three years, had their expectations completely rocked.
“It’s just a different season,” he said. “We never had to do what we have to do now with all the masks and taking precautions and being careful not getting close to people, barely being able to hang out with the team outside of the team. It’s so different.”
Despite it being so different, Argirov and the Panthers are doing their best to battle in a competitive DuKane Conference, enjoying the opportunity for the seniors to play games and finish up their careers while setting an example for the underclassmen.
The underclassmen will be back in just a few months for what hopefully will be the kind of season that Illinois high schoolers have grown accustomed to being a part of before the pandemic and its ensuing precautions turned everything upside down.
“We were pretty stacked with seniors last year so we lost a lot so this year. We have a lot of younger guys trying to fill their shoes,” Argirov said. “I’m taking a leadership role, teaching them how to act and practice and kind of preparing them for next season, I would say.”
One thing that hasn’t been lost among the truncated season and strange and unpredictable time is that it’s given the Panthers’ seven seniors a chance to represent their school a final time, while also playing alongside each other, which hasn’t always been the case for the Class of 2021.
With players like Argirov playing varsity as a freshman and others not collecting varsity minutes until last year. Some of them go back to recent club teams where they were teammates or foes even, while others have been playing together since they were 10 years old.
“We all get along well and have gone against each other from other clubs or played together,” senior Raul Pasillas said. “Our chemistry is good and we seem to know each other pretty well. I’ve known John Salazar and Martin (Argirov) since middle school. I’ve played with Nathanile (Enriquez) since I was 10, and I used to play with Ricky Patino on Eclipse last year and with Gabe (Jurado) freshman year. It’s been good for us to be back together.”
While the results haven’t been exactly what the Panthers (4-7-0, 2-7-0) had hoped for at this point, they’re playing soccer again and the senior class is together once more.
“I enjoy playing again,” Pasillas said. “At least I have something to do and am not sitting down in the house doing nothing. It feels good to be playing again.”
In the early going, Pasillas almost had to pinch himself that he was in a uniform actually playing in a competitive high school soccer match. But once he realized he was gassed after a couple runs, he knew it was legit. Soccer was back, and he was back playing it.
That, if nothing else, has been a victory for the Panthers and for countless other high school teams who have returned to action. Consider the cancelled girls season of 2020 or schools that their season delayed or truncated because of an outbreak and you realize how lucky you are just to be playing again.
“I remember being out of breath at first and I was like ‘Wow, I haven’t done this in a while, but it feels good,’” Pasillas said. “It just feels good to make that sprint again, that tackle, that pass. To celebrate with your teammates again. It was like being in a different world.”
Indeed.
Few high school soccer players walk into school with the rest of the freshmen but find themselves as a key contributor on the varsity soccer team that’s heavy with upperclassmen.
That’s where Argirov was a few years ago, and he’s seen a lot from those who have led before him. Despite that, he’s had to learn some things and make some decisions on the fly in this so-called “new normal.”
“In the beginning of the season we were kind of adjusting, having not played together as a team with the younger guys,” Argirov said. “The first couple of games of the season we started to slowly find places for everybody and started to get better. But that comes with time, and we hadn’t had the time. We didn’t have a summer camp or the preseason even. We just went straight into it, and we need to make adjustments.”
Next up for the Panthers is a Saturday matinee at Batavia.
“We talk to the team, me and the other captains, about how we have a job to do and only a certain amount of games left in the season,” Argirov said. “How do we want to play it? Do we want to give it our all and win those games or give half our effort and maybe get the outcome we deserve?
“We have to do what we’re supposed to do. We’re committed to playing, and it’s enjoyable.”
during topsy-turvy season
Seniors balance final year joy while preparing returnees for the fall
By Chris Walker
High school soccer has lost some of its shine for Glenbard North senior goalkeeper Martin Argirov. While that’s sad it’s also understandable during an unprecedented time where little seems to make sense.
It’s just not the same experience Argirov envisioned. The senior has spent four years on the varsity. When someone is as talented and driven like he is, it’s got to be extremely difficult to maintain your focus and desire to play the game you cherish when: you lose your full fall season; don’t have a postseason opportunity; are forced to play with a mask; can’t hang out with your teammates and friends; can’t look into the stands to see friends and family having a good time rooting you on; and can’t do the other fun things seniors before you have done. The can’ts just can’t stop adding up.
“It’s fun to play and all, but it’s nothing like every other year has been,” he said. “We used to get together and have food and hang out as a team, and we can’t do that. With all the precautions we have to take, it kind of feels like a chore. In the past years it felt like being in a family, and we got to really know each other. This year we’re just going to practice and playing.”
Argirov hopes to play after high school, but his pursuits there have stalled.
“I’m looking to play in college, but I don’t know where,” he said. “I was planning on D I at a bigger school, but with all the COVID and dead periods it’s been difficult to get offers. I’m looking at smaller schools but still looking forward to playing at a bigger school as well.”
The pandemic has highlighted that high school soccer, and prep sports in general, are far more than the practices and the games on the field.
It’s also the team bonding, the family the team becomes, the opportunity to play in front of friends and family and finally the passing of the torch to those who will be back to lead the team in the fall.
Kids like Argirov, who have seen how a normal campaign works over the past three years, had their expectations completely rocked.
“It’s just a different season,” he said. “We never had to do what we have to do now with all the masks and taking precautions and being careful not getting close to people, barely being able to hang out with the team outside of the team. It’s so different.”
Despite it being so different, Argirov and the Panthers are doing their best to battle in a competitive DuKane Conference, enjoying the opportunity for the seniors to play games and finish up their careers while setting an example for the underclassmen.
The underclassmen will be back in just a few months for what hopefully will be the kind of season that Illinois high schoolers have grown accustomed to being a part of before the pandemic and its ensuing precautions turned everything upside down.
“We were pretty stacked with seniors last year so we lost a lot so this year. We have a lot of younger guys trying to fill their shoes,” Argirov said. “I’m taking a leadership role, teaching them how to act and practice and kind of preparing them for next season, I would say.”
One thing that hasn’t been lost among the truncated season and strange and unpredictable time is that it’s given the Panthers’ seven seniors a chance to represent their school a final time, while also playing alongside each other, which hasn’t always been the case for the Class of 2021.
With players like Argirov playing varsity as a freshman and others not collecting varsity minutes until last year. Some of them go back to recent club teams where they were teammates or foes even, while others have been playing together since they were 10 years old.
“We all get along well and have gone against each other from other clubs or played together,” senior Raul Pasillas said. “Our chemistry is good and we seem to know each other pretty well. I’ve known John Salazar and Martin (Argirov) since middle school. I’ve played with Nathanile (Enriquez) since I was 10, and I used to play with Ricky Patino on Eclipse last year and with Gabe (Jurado) freshman year. It’s been good for us to be back together.”
While the results haven’t been exactly what the Panthers (4-7-0, 2-7-0) had hoped for at this point, they’re playing soccer again and the senior class is together once more.
“I enjoy playing again,” Pasillas said. “At least I have something to do and am not sitting down in the house doing nothing. It feels good to be playing again.”
In the early going, Pasillas almost had to pinch himself that he was in a uniform actually playing in a competitive high school soccer match. But once he realized he was gassed after a couple runs, he knew it was legit. Soccer was back, and he was back playing it.
That, if nothing else, has been a victory for the Panthers and for countless other high school teams who have returned to action. Consider the cancelled girls season of 2020 or schools that their season delayed or truncated because of an outbreak and you realize how lucky you are just to be playing again.
“I remember being out of breath at first and I was like ‘Wow, I haven’t done this in a while, but it feels good,’” Pasillas said. “It just feels good to make that sprint again, that tackle, that pass. To celebrate with your teammates again. It was like being in a different world.”
Indeed.
Few high school soccer players walk into school with the rest of the freshmen but find themselves as a key contributor on the varsity soccer team that’s heavy with upperclassmen.
That’s where Argirov was a few years ago, and he’s seen a lot from those who have led before him. Despite that, he’s had to learn some things and make some decisions on the fly in this so-called “new normal.”
“In the beginning of the season we were kind of adjusting, having not played together as a team with the younger guys,” Argirov said. “The first couple of games of the season we started to slowly find places for everybody and started to get better. But that comes with time, and we hadn’t had the time. We didn’t have a summer camp or the preseason even. We just went straight into it, and we need to make adjustments.”
Next up for the Panthers is a Saturday matinee at Batavia.
“We talk to the team, me and the other captains, about how we have a job to do and only a certain amount of games left in the season,” Argirov said. “How do we want to play it? Do we want to give it our all and win those games or give half our effort and maybe get the outcome we deserve?
“We have to do what we’re supposed to do. We’re committed to playing, and it’s enjoyable.”