Notebook: Glenbard East
By Dave Owen
Glenbard East accomplished plenty of firsts between 2016 and 2018 including the first three regional titles in program history. But the biggest breakthrough of all was the 2016 trip to the Class 3A state finals.
Then the 2019 season produced another feat that continues to pay off.
That squad had six freshmen for the first time in school history: Sarah Liljestrand, Zoe Romano, Ruby Campuzano, Maia Zatarski, Sarah Conroy and Natalie Borcean.
And those six players who helped Glenbard East to 18 wins in that 2019 season is closing the book on their prep careers with an Upstate Eight Conference title and a shot at postseason success.
“Every year you feel that senior group is a great class,” Rams coach Kent Overbey said, “but this one will be hard to top from the magnitude of what they did for four years, and coming in as 14-year-olds ready to go.”
Yet it turns out their immediate impacts weren’t totally unexpected at the time.
“Our soccer camp is usually mostly eighth graders and up, but one year we opened it up,” Overbey said. “There were no sixth or seventh graders, but there were five fifth graders there. And it was Liljestrand, Conroy, Zatarski, Borcean and Campuzano.
“All of them came in confident, and with everyone else (in camp years older) you wouldn’t be able to tell except for their size. It was very impressive.
“And I remembering saying to (assistant coach Jeff) Sabol ‘The future is pretty bright.’ I’m super sad to see them go. They’re such great individuals, and I’m lucky to have been able to work with them.”
Fast forward to 2022, and the six freshmen of yore are now keys to the Rams’ success.
“Zoe is really focused; Natalie does things in the middle. Zatarski is the one creating with Sarah and Sarah up-top scoring a lot of goals; and Ruby on the backline has been there since Day One freshman year,” Overbey said. “She’s been part of a lot of shutouts.
Two other current seniors, who arrived on varsity later, have made it an elite eight.
“You sprinkle in (reserve forward) Peyton (Dybowski) creating havoc up-top and (current starting midfielder) Haley (Tu) distributing out of the middle, and it’s just an incredible group.”
The original six
As much as they did as a group, each four-year varsity senior brought special skills to the pitch. Overbey offered thoughts on each standout. In alphabetical order:
Borcean: “Natalie does all the dirty work at defensive center mid. Incredibly disruptive, breaks up the offensive flow of the opponent. And nobody is better at winning balls both on the ground and in the air. She gets forward well, can score from outside (three goals and seven assists) and is the target on set pieces.”
Campuzano: “She’s been a great leader for our younger defenders (at an outside spot). She’s incredibly intelligent. Her positioning is perfect, and she reads the game so well she rarely gets into 1-v-1 situations. She backs her teammates up well.”
Conroy: “She has the pace and the physical style to break down the other team (eight goals with five assists in 2022). She can get in behind, but also checks back and holds the ball well. She also serves a very dangerous ball on corners.
Liljestrand: “She’s the motor that drives us (six goals, 17 assists). She plays all the positions. Her pace can break the game open. Sarah does a great job of bringing her teammates into the play. Her 17 assists speak volumes of her unselfish, team-first attitude.”
Romano: “She’s a great shot-stopper (with 13 shutouts this season). She’s been posting shutouts for four years. She organizes the defense well and is a great outlet to play with her feet. Zoe has played almost every single minute this year and last year. We just got our junior backup Haley Glennon in the last two games. To show up every game and know there’s nobody to replace you is hard. A lot of people would get worn down.”
Zatarski: “About as clutch as they come (19 goals, three assists). She scores big goals when we need her the most. She’s extremely dangerous off the dribble and wants to take players on. Plays the attacking center mid role and finds the pockets of space between the midfield and the defense. She’s great in the air as well, a true weapon on set pieces.”
Senior talk
From their immediate impacts on varsity to 2022, it’s been a fast ride.
“Obviously coming in, it was nerve wracking,” Borcean said. “Going in and playing vs. 18-year-olds as a 14-year-old is scary. But as years progressed, I had the honor of being a captain as a sophomore. I couldn’t have been more honored for Overbey and Sabol to see me almost as an upperclassman as a sophomore.
“I’m blessed to have been with this team for four years, and I wouldn’t do anything to change it.”
Conroy had similar memories.
“Making varsity freshman year was just a huge deal, because they take it so seriously here on varsity,” Conroy said. “It was a great opportunity with so many upperclassmen. I got to see how they play, and now we’re leading by example. We have girls looking up to us, and it’s just crazy how time flies.
“Most of us are captains now (five of the seniors), and we get a lot of questions. We reach out and answer them, and we reach out when someone’s down and see how they’re doing. We just try to bring each other up always.”
Liljestrand’s older sister Ali was a sophomore on the 2016 state team, meaning the family has been represented on varsity for seven-plus years.
“Once she left (graduating after the 2018 season) and I came in, I was like ‘I need to get number 2,’” Liljestrand said. “Coming in here and taking her jersey, I just felt I had to keep it going."
Liljestrand, Borcean and Zatarski were all captains the last two seasons, and Borcean for three.
“I felt so good being here," Liljestrand said. "It’s the best school, the best team. I love it.”
The lost 2020 season
The last three senior groups statewide have all had to deal with an unfortunate break in their careers: the 2020 worldwide shutdown due to COVID-19 that halted the soccer season that spring before a game was even played.
“Going into that, two practices in we were all like ‘Oh, it’ll be a regular-season soon,’” Borcean said of the original IHSA plan to just delay the season. “Then they cancelled everything.”
But the Rams have made up for lost time as best they could. After going 8-4-2 in an abbreviated 2021 season, they have rolled to 14 wins and an unbeaten UEC title (8-0-1) this spring entering regionals.
“I feel like we definitely took it (soccer) for granted before,” Borcean said. “It's awful that that year was taken from us, but it’s always good to be back.
“We lost the one year, but we came back strong. And now we’re stronger than ever.”
That attitude and the team’s accomplishments through the adversity has further impressed Overbey about the senior corps.
“You look at where this group is,” he said, “the magnitude of the games they played and where their stats are and then you realize ‘They didn’t play their sophomore year, and their junior year they only played 14 games.’
“It really puts into perspective what these seniors have meant to our program.”
By Dave Owen
Glenbard East accomplished plenty of firsts between 2016 and 2018 including the first three regional titles in program history. But the biggest breakthrough of all was the 2016 trip to the Class 3A state finals.
Then the 2019 season produced another feat that continues to pay off.
That squad had six freshmen for the first time in school history: Sarah Liljestrand, Zoe Romano, Ruby Campuzano, Maia Zatarski, Sarah Conroy and Natalie Borcean.
And those six players who helped Glenbard East to 18 wins in that 2019 season is closing the book on their prep careers with an Upstate Eight Conference title and a shot at postseason success.
“Every year you feel that senior group is a great class,” Rams coach Kent Overbey said, “but this one will be hard to top from the magnitude of what they did for four years, and coming in as 14-year-olds ready to go.”
Yet it turns out their immediate impacts weren’t totally unexpected at the time.
“Our soccer camp is usually mostly eighth graders and up, but one year we opened it up,” Overbey said. “There were no sixth or seventh graders, but there were five fifth graders there. And it was Liljestrand, Conroy, Zatarski, Borcean and Campuzano.
“All of them came in confident, and with everyone else (in camp years older) you wouldn’t be able to tell except for their size. It was very impressive.
“And I remembering saying to (assistant coach Jeff) Sabol ‘The future is pretty bright.’ I’m super sad to see them go. They’re such great individuals, and I’m lucky to have been able to work with them.”
Fast forward to 2022, and the six freshmen of yore are now keys to the Rams’ success.
“Zoe is really focused; Natalie does things in the middle. Zatarski is the one creating with Sarah and Sarah up-top scoring a lot of goals; and Ruby on the backline has been there since Day One freshman year,” Overbey said. “She’s been part of a lot of shutouts.
Two other current seniors, who arrived on varsity later, have made it an elite eight.
“You sprinkle in (reserve forward) Peyton (Dybowski) creating havoc up-top and (current starting midfielder) Haley (Tu) distributing out of the middle, and it’s just an incredible group.”
The original six
As much as they did as a group, each four-year varsity senior brought special skills to the pitch. Overbey offered thoughts on each standout. In alphabetical order:
Borcean: “Natalie does all the dirty work at defensive center mid. Incredibly disruptive, breaks up the offensive flow of the opponent. And nobody is better at winning balls both on the ground and in the air. She gets forward well, can score from outside (three goals and seven assists) and is the target on set pieces.”
Campuzano: “She’s been a great leader for our younger defenders (at an outside spot). She’s incredibly intelligent. Her positioning is perfect, and she reads the game so well she rarely gets into 1-v-1 situations. She backs her teammates up well.”
Conroy: “She has the pace and the physical style to break down the other team (eight goals with five assists in 2022). She can get in behind, but also checks back and holds the ball well. She also serves a very dangerous ball on corners.
Liljestrand: “She’s the motor that drives us (six goals, 17 assists). She plays all the positions. Her pace can break the game open. Sarah does a great job of bringing her teammates into the play. Her 17 assists speak volumes of her unselfish, team-first attitude.”
Romano: “She’s a great shot-stopper (with 13 shutouts this season). She’s been posting shutouts for four years. She organizes the defense well and is a great outlet to play with her feet. Zoe has played almost every single minute this year and last year. We just got our junior backup Haley Glennon in the last two games. To show up every game and know there’s nobody to replace you is hard. A lot of people would get worn down.”
Zatarski: “About as clutch as they come (19 goals, three assists). She scores big goals when we need her the most. She’s extremely dangerous off the dribble and wants to take players on. Plays the attacking center mid role and finds the pockets of space between the midfield and the defense. She’s great in the air as well, a true weapon on set pieces.”
Senior talk
From their immediate impacts on varsity to 2022, it’s been a fast ride.
“Obviously coming in, it was nerve wracking,” Borcean said. “Going in and playing vs. 18-year-olds as a 14-year-old is scary. But as years progressed, I had the honor of being a captain as a sophomore. I couldn’t have been more honored for Overbey and Sabol to see me almost as an upperclassman as a sophomore.
“I’m blessed to have been with this team for four years, and I wouldn’t do anything to change it.”
Conroy had similar memories.
“Making varsity freshman year was just a huge deal, because they take it so seriously here on varsity,” Conroy said. “It was a great opportunity with so many upperclassmen. I got to see how they play, and now we’re leading by example. We have girls looking up to us, and it’s just crazy how time flies.
“Most of us are captains now (five of the seniors), and we get a lot of questions. We reach out and answer them, and we reach out when someone’s down and see how they’re doing. We just try to bring each other up always.”
Liljestrand’s older sister Ali was a sophomore on the 2016 state team, meaning the family has been represented on varsity for seven-plus years.
“Once she left (graduating after the 2018 season) and I came in, I was like ‘I need to get number 2,’” Liljestrand said. “Coming in here and taking her jersey, I just felt I had to keep it going."
Liljestrand, Borcean and Zatarski were all captains the last two seasons, and Borcean for three.
“I felt so good being here," Liljestrand said. "It’s the best school, the best team. I love it.”
The lost 2020 season
The last three senior groups statewide have all had to deal with an unfortunate break in their careers: the 2020 worldwide shutdown due to COVID-19 that halted the soccer season that spring before a game was even played.
“Going into that, two practices in we were all like ‘Oh, it’ll be a regular-season soon,’” Borcean said of the original IHSA plan to just delay the season. “Then they cancelled everything.”
But the Rams have made up for lost time as best they could. After going 8-4-2 in an abbreviated 2021 season, they have rolled to 14 wins and an unbeaten UEC title (8-0-1) this spring entering regionals.
“I feel like we definitely took it (soccer) for granted before,” Borcean said. “It's awful that that year was taken from us, but it’s always good to be back.
“We lost the one year, but we came back strong. And now we’re stronger than ever.”
That attitude and the team’s accomplishments through the adversity has further impressed Overbey about the senior corps.
“You look at where this group is,” he said, “the magnitude of the games they played and where their stats are and then you realize ‘They didn’t play their sophomore year, and their junior year they only played 14 games.’
“It really puts into perspective what these seniors have meant to our program.”