Martin far above par
on Naperville North pitch
By Matt Le Cren
When people remember Naperville North’s 2012 and 2013 state championship squads, the first names that come to mind are Abbie Boswell and Zoe Swift.
That’s understandable since star strikers get all the publicity.
Hannah Martin was that player for Naperville North’s 2019 state championship team. The supremely athletic 5-foot-11 forward led the Huskies in scoring with 17 goals and three assists, accounting for 36 percent of their production.
But tell Martin that she is the face of that team and you’ll get a humble, though accurate, response.
“It was a super cool experience,” Martin said. “I think that’s what everyone at North goes in wanting.
“Obviously, those big names like Abbie Boswell and Zoe Swift are the ones you don’t forget. But I think part of the reason that those names are still remembered is not just because of how they played but also their team.
“Their team helped them get there, and I don’t think I could have scored as nearly as many goals as I did without the help of my midfield and the defense. You had Reilly Riggs and Emily (Magee) back there.
“Yeah, I scored quite a few goals, but I think that was a big team effort, especially in the state championship game when we didn’t have any shots and Barrington just kept coming at us.”
Defense was the name of the game against Barrington, which North vanquished on penalty kicks after memorably not recording a single shot during 100 minutes of regulation and overtime. And defense was North’s forte during a season that ended with the Huskies setting a record for fewest wins by a state champion.
But while the Huskies averaged 1.95 goals per game, they would not have won the title without the play of Martin, who scored a series of huge goals, including the second half, game-tying goal with 15:25 left of North’s eventual shootout win over Lyons in the state semifinals.
Last season marked the second-straight year Martin led the Huskies in scoring. She bagged 16 goals and five assists as a sophomore, her first varsity season.
How did she do it? Sheer effort, according to Naperville North coach Steve Goletz.
“It’s her work rate,” Goletz said. “I say it all the time – Ty Konrad for our boys team has been fantastic. He just runs hard, takes a beating. The forward job is not glamorous at Naperville North.
“Hannah has fit that bill in terms of her work rate and just her willingness to do whatever we need, even defensively. That is humbling as a coach, to watch a kid work as hard as she does day in and day out on the field.”
No surprise that Martin ranks near the top of the best attacking players the Huskies have fielded during Goletz’s nine-year reign, which includes three state titles and a third place trophy.
“Boswell and Swift are in a league of their own in terms of the full package,” Goletz said. “Hannah is more of an athlete. She’s got a couple of good moves that she goes to consistently.
“But her ability to wear opponents down I think is what’s special about her and when she does that it’s such a fun thing to watch as a coach. She’s been able to do that on a consistent basis.”
Martin is similar to Boswell and Swift in that they all excelled in other sports. Boswell was a state qualifier in tennis, and Swift was the starting point guard on the basketball team.
Both went on to standout soccer careers in the SEC; Boswell at Alabama and Swift at Kentucky.
Martin, who will play for Purdue, was a four-time state qualifier in golf, leading the Huskies to sixth place at the state finals as a junior and fifth as a senior, when she finished 35th individually.
“I think the big thing for Hannah is just her development as a player in such a limited capacity,” Goletz said. “There isn’t anybody that I know in regards to the DuPage County area that has had the impact she’s had and not really been a full-time soccer player.
“She does play club for Galaxy, and it’s not like she’s stopping playing, but she has a ton of other commitments with golf. The improvement that she’s made is obviously why a school like Purdue saw the potential that she has.
“Hannah, as the season goes on, she gets better because she’s training six days a week and that’s a lot more than she’s doing in the offseason. The same thing can’t be said of a lot of other kids.
“Then she picks up a golf club and qualifies for the state tournament with that kind of natural ability.”
Martin began playing soccer in kindergarten but added golf to her repertoire at the behest of her father, Brian, when she eight.
“My dad really wanted me to pick that up just to have another sport to balance out soccer so I wasn’t doing one thing all of high school,” Martin said. “I kind of had a balance and didn’t get burned out in one or the other.”
The elder Martin didn’t play golf in high school but loves the game and the whole family hits the links with regularity.
“He wants me to play golf in college, but I wanted to play soccer, so that’s the path I went,” Martin said. “He would have loved to see me play golf, though.”
Playing both sports at the same time was a challenge for Martin. She had to balance golf with club soccer each fall, missing some events in each but never losing her edge.
“In the fall when I have golf season, the first two years I would try to balance it,” Martin said. “I’d miss some golf tournaments for soccer and vice versa, but my coaches were super flexible.
“(Golf coach) Greta (Williams) would let me miss some stuff and same with my club soccer team, because they knew I wanted to do both. I tried to keep it pretty even, and then junior and senior year when I really wanted to focus on soccer, I tended to miss more golf stuff than in previous years.
“I tried to make it to as much stuff as I could for both. It was a lot, but it was super fun to do.”
Natural ability and hard work are two of the ingredients that made Martin a star on the pitch, but a third was something that can’t be quantified.
“From a soccer standpoint, I think a lot of my success came from just the atmosphere North creates,” Martin said. “Obviously, club played a part in it but I think with such great coaches and teammates at North, it’s just such a fun atmosphere to play in.
“I think people get better just from being around the people. A lot of my success just came from having fun and being able to be part of such great teams.”
Those teams included some of Martin’s longtime friends like Paige Sylvester, Emily Magee and Leah Shumate, who have played soccer together since the beginning.
All four were starters on the 2019 state championship team and were looking forward to trying to go back-to-back like Boswell and Swift did. But their senior season is in danger of being wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
But Martin, a National Honor Society member who plans to major in finance or engineering at Purdue, is excited about playing in the Big Ten, where she will face former teammates Riggs (Northwestern) and Katelyn Buescher (Illinois).
Goletz will be excited to watch her play on the Big Ten Network.
“The sky’s the limit for Hannah, there’s no doubt,” Goletz said. “She’s shown that when she carried us to the state championship on the offensive side of the ball.
“She obviously shows year in and year out just how special she is. She’s a specimen of an athlete already and then you put her in an environment where she’s getting top of the line coaching and training and strength conditioning every day.
“You put all those pieces together it’s like, ‘Holy Cow.’ As long as she continues to stay humble and continues to do the things that have made her successful, I think she’ll continue to do some things that might even surprise me.”
on Naperville North pitch
By Matt Le Cren
When people remember Naperville North’s 2012 and 2013 state championship squads, the first names that come to mind are Abbie Boswell and Zoe Swift.
That’s understandable since star strikers get all the publicity.
Hannah Martin was that player for Naperville North’s 2019 state championship team. The supremely athletic 5-foot-11 forward led the Huskies in scoring with 17 goals and three assists, accounting for 36 percent of their production.
But tell Martin that she is the face of that team and you’ll get a humble, though accurate, response.
“It was a super cool experience,” Martin said. “I think that’s what everyone at North goes in wanting.
“Obviously, those big names like Abbie Boswell and Zoe Swift are the ones you don’t forget. But I think part of the reason that those names are still remembered is not just because of how they played but also their team.
“Their team helped them get there, and I don’t think I could have scored as nearly as many goals as I did without the help of my midfield and the defense. You had Reilly Riggs and Emily (Magee) back there.
“Yeah, I scored quite a few goals, but I think that was a big team effort, especially in the state championship game when we didn’t have any shots and Barrington just kept coming at us.”
Defense was the name of the game against Barrington, which North vanquished on penalty kicks after memorably not recording a single shot during 100 minutes of regulation and overtime. And defense was North’s forte during a season that ended with the Huskies setting a record for fewest wins by a state champion.
But while the Huskies averaged 1.95 goals per game, they would not have won the title without the play of Martin, who scored a series of huge goals, including the second half, game-tying goal with 15:25 left of North’s eventual shootout win over Lyons in the state semifinals.
Last season marked the second-straight year Martin led the Huskies in scoring. She bagged 16 goals and five assists as a sophomore, her first varsity season.
How did she do it? Sheer effort, according to Naperville North coach Steve Goletz.
“It’s her work rate,” Goletz said. “I say it all the time – Ty Konrad for our boys team has been fantastic. He just runs hard, takes a beating. The forward job is not glamorous at Naperville North.
“Hannah has fit that bill in terms of her work rate and just her willingness to do whatever we need, even defensively. That is humbling as a coach, to watch a kid work as hard as she does day in and day out on the field.”
No surprise that Martin ranks near the top of the best attacking players the Huskies have fielded during Goletz’s nine-year reign, which includes three state titles and a third place trophy.
“Boswell and Swift are in a league of their own in terms of the full package,” Goletz said. “Hannah is more of an athlete. She’s got a couple of good moves that she goes to consistently.
“But her ability to wear opponents down I think is what’s special about her and when she does that it’s such a fun thing to watch as a coach. She’s been able to do that on a consistent basis.”
Martin is similar to Boswell and Swift in that they all excelled in other sports. Boswell was a state qualifier in tennis, and Swift was the starting point guard on the basketball team.
Both went on to standout soccer careers in the SEC; Boswell at Alabama and Swift at Kentucky.
Martin, who will play for Purdue, was a four-time state qualifier in golf, leading the Huskies to sixth place at the state finals as a junior and fifth as a senior, when she finished 35th individually.
“I think the big thing for Hannah is just her development as a player in such a limited capacity,” Goletz said. “There isn’t anybody that I know in regards to the DuPage County area that has had the impact she’s had and not really been a full-time soccer player.
“She does play club for Galaxy, and it’s not like she’s stopping playing, but she has a ton of other commitments with golf. The improvement that she’s made is obviously why a school like Purdue saw the potential that she has.
“Hannah, as the season goes on, she gets better because she’s training six days a week and that’s a lot more than she’s doing in the offseason. The same thing can’t be said of a lot of other kids.
“Then she picks up a golf club and qualifies for the state tournament with that kind of natural ability.”
Martin began playing soccer in kindergarten but added golf to her repertoire at the behest of her father, Brian, when she eight.
“My dad really wanted me to pick that up just to have another sport to balance out soccer so I wasn’t doing one thing all of high school,” Martin said. “I kind of had a balance and didn’t get burned out in one or the other.”
The elder Martin didn’t play golf in high school but loves the game and the whole family hits the links with regularity.
“He wants me to play golf in college, but I wanted to play soccer, so that’s the path I went,” Martin said. “He would have loved to see me play golf, though.”
Playing both sports at the same time was a challenge for Martin. She had to balance golf with club soccer each fall, missing some events in each but never losing her edge.
“In the fall when I have golf season, the first two years I would try to balance it,” Martin said. “I’d miss some golf tournaments for soccer and vice versa, but my coaches were super flexible.
“(Golf coach) Greta (Williams) would let me miss some stuff and same with my club soccer team, because they knew I wanted to do both. I tried to keep it pretty even, and then junior and senior year when I really wanted to focus on soccer, I tended to miss more golf stuff than in previous years.
“I tried to make it to as much stuff as I could for both. It was a lot, but it was super fun to do.”
Natural ability and hard work are two of the ingredients that made Martin a star on the pitch, but a third was something that can’t be quantified.
“From a soccer standpoint, I think a lot of my success came from just the atmosphere North creates,” Martin said. “Obviously, club played a part in it but I think with such great coaches and teammates at North, it’s just such a fun atmosphere to play in.
“I think people get better just from being around the people. A lot of my success just came from having fun and being able to be part of such great teams.”
Those teams included some of Martin’s longtime friends like Paige Sylvester, Emily Magee and Leah Shumate, who have played soccer together since the beginning.
All four were starters on the 2019 state championship team and were looking forward to trying to go back-to-back like Boswell and Swift did. But their senior season is in danger of being wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
But Martin, a National Honor Society member who plans to major in finance or engineering at Purdue, is excited about playing in the Big Ten, where she will face former teammates Riggs (Northwestern) and Katelyn Buescher (Illinois).
Goletz will be excited to watch her play on the Big Ten Network.
“The sky’s the limit for Hannah, there’s no doubt,” Goletz said. “She’s shown that when she carried us to the state championship on the offensive side of the ball.
“She obviously shows year in and year out just how special she is. She’s a specimen of an athlete already and then you put her in an environment where she’s getting top of the line coaching and training and strength conditioning every day.
“You put all those pieces together it’s like, ‘Holy Cow.’ As long as she continues to stay humble and continues to do the things that have made her successful, I think she’ll continue to do some things that might even surprise me.”