Season recap: Glenbard East
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a hot lazy afternoon in late May, the field at Bartlett seemed more likely to be situated somewhere in the tropics than the northwestern outskirts of Chicagoland.
The sun was low and the air was thick and punishingly humid.
The players at Glenbard East seemed a bit discombobulated, or the very least, out of joint, when the game kicked off. Their actions were slow, as if operating with their own time-delay.
Bartlett scored two goals in the first four minutes. A rout seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Suddenly, a change of spirits, a more animated drive, and a tough and relentless push to save a ball seemingly headed out of bounds ended up with a cross and a shot by forward Jasmine Dhamers.
The furious action ended with the ball punched out to the edge of the box. Maia Zatarski reacted quickly, took aim and nailed a howitzer perfectly positioned in the upper 90 for the Rams’ goal.
“We did a great job of not giving up,” Zatarski said after the game. “Very easily that game could have gone a completely different way.”
Glenbard East generated a remarkable story. Goals in the 75th by midfielder Sophia Heatley and a stunning 80th-minute score by midfielder Natalie Borcean that resulted in a 3-3 draw with the eventual Upstate Eight Conference champions.
A couple of weeks later, reflecting on that game as a larger metaphor for the Rams’ season, Zatarski summed it up:
“That game showed how we put in what we wanted to get out of the season,” she said.
The season began with a contested 1-0 loss on a penalty kick goal from Class A state finalist Timothy and ended with a shutout loss against sectional finalist and then undefeated Benet in a Class 3A regional championship.
It was the in-between world that mattered. Like so many teams, the Rams entered the year haunted by the void of missing out during the pandemic season.
“When the season got canceled, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” senior defender Kendall Crackel said.
“I felt a little bit lost.”
In the spring of 2019, Glenbard East appeared headed for its third-consecutive regional crown until they were upset by Chicago Public League power Young.
That loss stung, and the chance to make up for that animated the drive and ferocity of the next season. Zatarski and forward Sarah Liljestrand were freshmen on that team, as was keeper Zoe Romano.
The team was stacked with quality depth and high-level seniors. The early training was intense and dynamic. Then quiet, anxiousness and a pause that proved to be permanent.
“Losing my season last year, I was just devastated,” Liljestrand said. “Coming into this year, I was very scared we weren’t going to have a season.
“We made the best of it.”
The season existed, though it was improvised and given to wild fluctuations involving health and safety protocols, disruptions and a truncated schedule.
“When we first started the season, we had injuries and people had to quarantine, and we always had to wear masks,” Liljestrand said.
“We also couldn’t have team bonding, so we weren’t as close as some of the teams in the past.”
Zatarski, Liljestrand and Romano came into the program two years ago as freshmen.
Romano still remembers the exhilaration she felt when receiving the email notifying her she’d made the varsity as a freshman.
“I just started jumping up and down,” Romano said. “I almost cried. Being able to play with so many different girls from different backgrounds with different playing styles who came from different clubs was just mind-blowing.”
Liljestrand had a nearly identical impression, of being at ease thanks to the thoughtful ways the older players welcomed the freshmen.
“I just felt the whole team was there to back me up,” she said. “I felt good about myself, and I knew I could count on the others.”
This season, Zatarski and Liljestrand were the dynamic offensive pieces, and Crackel was the savvy and intense defender who settled the back.
Romano was the final wall, a physical and athletic keeper who showed the proper balance of instinct and aggression.
The three juniors who played as freshmen on the varsity injected a level of athleticism and toughness. The team was young, with just three seniors on the roster in Crackel, Heatley and forward Eveleen Guemez.
The eagerness of the players to get back to what they loved manifested in multiple ways. They were eager for any kind of competition, ready to prepare themselves mentally and physically for the rigors of the season.
There were detours along the way.
Liljestrand played varsity golf last fall.
“It was really nice to get out and try different things other than soccer,” she said.
Crackel personified the versatile athlete who shifts seamlessly between the jammed together seasons. She was a defense-oriented guard on the basketball team and an outside hitter in volleyball.
“Once basketball got to go at the start of February, we were definitely all ready to go in soccer,” she said. “Each year I always had a little bit of a break between, a week between seasons, to rest and prepare.
“This year everything was overlapping. I was used to it somewhat, because I’d sometimes have a club sport overlap with a high school sport, like basketball and club volleyball. All of these sports are important, and I wanted to make it work.”
Zatarski, Liljestrand, Crackel and Romano started on the 2019 team that finished 19-4-2.
Zatarski and Liljestrand made immediate contributions as explosive offensive players. Zatarski had seven goals and four assists her freshman year; Liljestrand had three goals and 14 assists.
Romano conceded only five goals in 920 minutes of play. Crackel solidified that back, playing a disruptive and blitzing style that helped the Rams post 15 shutouts in 2019.
“Goalkeeper is a thankless job sometimes,” Romano said. “It’s a very important one, and I love being able to play with Hope (McKenna) and Kendall, just two physical and solid defenders who have been a huge part of the success I’ve had over the years.”
Coach Kent Overbey entered his 14th season directing the program. Though naturally optimistic, he was also a realist who had more questions than answers.
That Bartlett match, the 11th of a 14-game season, turned out to be the first Overbey had his entire roster at his disposal.
“As a coach, one of the challenges at all times is getting your best 11 on the field at any given time,” Overbey said. “This year was another example of that — except it was expanded. With quarantine, COVID, the roster was always in flux.”
Positions were literally written in the air. Coaches always gravitate toward order and structure. Glenbard East had to mitigate the chaos.
“We were asking our players to take on new roles or play different positions and also getting used to what their new role was going to be, and everything was constantly changing,” Overbey said.
As a social studies teacher and lecturer who studies history, he understands the fluidity and spontaneity of time.
“This season was life imitating art,” Overbey said. “Kids have to be resilient, dealing with the pandemic, and our team was extremely resilient.
“I was most impressed with our roster top to bottom, and the way we did whatever was needed. Players transitioned on a day-to-day basis to new roles.”
Offsetting the missed year, Overbey went to a more spaced-out schedule and trained six days a week at the start. Overbey watched the reactions of his players closely, and adjusted training and practice between “going full tilt and then sprinkling in recovery sessions as well.”
The intertwining of the experienced talent and the emerging players produced some inevitable up-and-down levels of play. After two weeks, the Rams were 2-2-1.
The only truly somber point was a lopsided loss against Glenbard West on May 8.
That was followed by a season-best four-game winning streak as the Rams (8-4-2, 6-1-2) went 6-2-1 over the final six weeks of the season.
Glenbard East finished second to Barlett in the conference standings.
“I was super happy with our results,” Overbey said. “We probably left a couple out there at the beginning. If you saw where we were at the beginning and where we were at the end, with our growth, my only regret was the season was not two weeks longer before the start of the playoffs.
“I wish we could have operated at a full roster and at full speed for a couple of more games. It was rewarding and fun to see.”
Zatarski said what she missed most during the pandemic year was the missed connections with new friends and new teammates. Compared to her club program, this was the jolt of the new.
“Overall, it was a great season,” Zatarski said. “It really showed us how everybody was willing to do anything to help each other.
“Given how many hardships we had to deal with, I thought it was great how everyone was willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.”
The telling moment, Zatarski said, was midfielder Sophia Sommesi, getting emergency minutes at keeper when Romano was unavailable.
“She really surprised me and did a great job.”
Crackel loss to graduation is going to open a difficult position to fill.
McKenna, Maddie Kiefer and Brielle DeForest are physical and dynamic players.
Borcean and Sommesi provide athletic shot-creators in the middle of the attack to provide support for Zatarski and Liljestrand.
At the top of the attack, Dahmers and Sarah Conroy are also sharp and creative offensive threats.
Youth is everywhere. Sommesi, who shuttles between the middle and at the top of the formation, just finished her freshman season, like McKenna. Haley Tu, who just finished her junior year, is another two-way talent to watch.
That Bartlett game that proved such a benchmark for the season had multiple interpretations for the players.
It turned out to be one of the final games of Crackel, who is getting ready to begin her freshman year at the University of Illinois.
“It taught all of us to never take anything for granted,” she said. “You never know the next time you have to quarantine for two weeks. That could be your season.
“We knew we had to play every game as if it were our last game. We didn’t know what was going to happen. I’ve been playing soccer since I was three years old, and I wanted to play the sport I love.
“Everything was not going to be given to you.”
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a hot lazy afternoon in late May, the field at Bartlett seemed more likely to be situated somewhere in the tropics than the northwestern outskirts of Chicagoland.
The sun was low and the air was thick and punishingly humid.
The players at Glenbard East seemed a bit discombobulated, or the very least, out of joint, when the game kicked off. Their actions were slow, as if operating with their own time-delay.
Bartlett scored two goals in the first four minutes. A rout seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Suddenly, a change of spirits, a more animated drive, and a tough and relentless push to save a ball seemingly headed out of bounds ended up with a cross and a shot by forward Jasmine Dhamers.
The furious action ended with the ball punched out to the edge of the box. Maia Zatarski reacted quickly, took aim and nailed a howitzer perfectly positioned in the upper 90 for the Rams’ goal.
“We did a great job of not giving up,” Zatarski said after the game. “Very easily that game could have gone a completely different way.”
Glenbard East generated a remarkable story. Goals in the 75th by midfielder Sophia Heatley and a stunning 80th-minute score by midfielder Natalie Borcean that resulted in a 3-3 draw with the eventual Upstate Eight Conference champions.
A couple of weeks later, reflecting on that game as a larger metaphor for the Rams’ season, Zatarski summed it up:
“That game showed how we put in what we wanted to get out of the season,” she said.
The season began with a contested 1-0 loss on a penalty kick goal from Class A state finalist Timothy and ended with a shutout loss against sectional finalist and then undefeated Benet in a Class 3A regional championship.
It was the in-between world that mattered. Like so many teams, the Rams entered the year haunted by the void of missing out during the pandemic season.
“When the season got canceled, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” senior defender Kendall Crackel said.
“I felt a little bit lost.”
In the spring of 2019, Glenbard East appeared headed for its third-consecutive regional crown until they were upset by Chicago Public League power Young.
That loss stung, and the chance to make up for that animated the drive and ferocity of the next season. Zatarski and forward Sarah Liljestrand were freshmen on that team, as was keeper Zoe Romano.
The team was stacked with quality depth and high-level seniors. The early training was intense and dynamic. Then quiet, anxiousness and a pause that proved to be permanent.
“Losing my season last year, I was just devastated,” Liljestrand said. “Coming into this year, I was very scared we weren’t going to have a season.
“We made the best of it.”
The season existed, though it was improvised and given to wild fluctuations involving health and safety protocols, disruptions and a truncated schedule.
“When we first started the season, we had injuries and people had to quarantine, and we always had to wear masks,” Liljestrand said.
“We also couldn’t have team bonding, so we weren’t as close as some of the teams in the past.”
Zatarski, Liljestrand and Romano came into the program two years ago as freshmen.
Romano still remembers the exhilaration she felt when receiving the email notifying her she’d made the varsity as a freshman.
“I just started jumping up and down,” Romano said. “I almost cried. Being able to play with so many different girls from different backgrounds with different playing styles who came from different clubs was just mind-blowing.”
Liljestrand had a nearly identical impression, of being at ease thanks to the thoughtful ways the older players welcomed the freshmen.
“I just felt the whole team was there to back me up,” she said. “I felt good about myself, and I knew I could count on the others.”
This season, Zatarski and Liljestrand were the dynamic offensive pieces, and Crackel was the savvy and intense defender who settled the back.
Romano was the final wall, a physical and athletic keeper who showed the proper balance of instinct and aggression.
The three juniors who played as freshmen on the varsity injected a level of athleticism and toughness. The team was young, with just three seniors on the roster in Crackel, Heatley and forward Eveleen Guemez.
The eagerness of the players to get back to what they loved manifested in multiple ways. They were eager for any kind of competition, ready to prepare themselves mentally and physically for the rigors of the season.
There were detours along the way.
Liljestrand played varsity golf last fall.
“It was really nice to get out and try different things other than soccer,” she said.
Crackel personified the versatile athlete who shifts seamlessly between the jammed together seasons. She was a defense-oriented guard on the basketball team and an outside hitter in volleyball.
“Once basketball got to go at the start of February, we were definitely all ready to go in soccer,” she said. “Each year I always had a little bit of a break between, a week between seasons, to rest and prepare.
“This year everything was overlapping. I was used to it somewhat, because I’d sometimes have a club sport overlap with a high school sport, like basketball and club volleyball. All of these sports are important, and I wanted to make it work.”
Zatarski, Liljestrand, Crackel and Romano started on the 2019 team that finished 19-4-2.
Zatarski and Liljestrand made immediate contributions as explosive offensive players. Zatarski had seven goals and four assists her freshman year; Liljestrand had three goals and 14 assists.
Romano conceded only five goals in 920 minutes of play. Crackel solidified that back, playing a disruptive and blitzing style that helped the Rams post 15 shutouts in 2019.
“Goalkeeper is a thankless job sometimes,” Romano said. “It’s a very important one, and I love being able to play with Hope (McKenna) and Kendall, just two physical and solid defenders who have been a huge part of the success I’ve had over the years.”
Coach Kent Overbey entered his 14th season directing the program. Though naturally optimistic, he was also a realist who had more questions than answers.
That Bartlett match, the 11th of a 14-game season, turned out to be the first Overbey had his entire roster at his disposal.
“As a coach, one of the challenges at all times is getting your best 11 on the field at any given time,” Overbey said. “This year was another example of that — except it was expanded. With quarantine, COVID, the roster was always in flux.”
Positions were literally written in the air. Coaches always gravitate toward order and structure. Glenbard East had to mitigate the chaos.
“We were asking our players to take on new roles or play different positions and also getting used to what their new role was going to be, and everything was constantly changing,” Overbey said.
As a social studies teacher and lecturer who studies history, he understands the fluidity and spontaneity of time.
“This season was life imitating art,” Overbey said. “Kids have to be resilient, dealing with the pandemic, and our team was extremely resilient.
“I was most impressed with our roster top to bottom, and the way we did whatever was needed. Players transitioned on a day-to-day basis to new roles.”
Offsetting the missed year, Overbey went to a more spaced-out schedule and trained six days a week at the start. Overbey watched the reactions of his players closely, and adjusted training and practice between “going full tilt and then sprinkling in recovery sessions as well.”
The intertwining of the experienced talent and the emerging players produced some inevitable up-and-down levels of play. After two weeks, the Rams were 2-2-1.
The only truly somber point was a lopsided loss against Glenbard West on May 8.
That was followed by a season-best four-game winning streak as the Rams (8-4-2, 6-1-2) went 6-2-1 over the final six weeks of the season.
Glenbard East finished second to Barlett in the conference standings.
“I was super happy with our results,” Overbey said. “We probably left a couple out there at the beginning. If you saw where we were at the beginning and where we were at the end, with our growth, my only regret was the season was not two weeks longer before the start of the playoffs.
“I wish we could have operated at a full roster and at full speed for a couple of more games. It was rewarding and fun to see.”
Zatarski said what she missed most during the pandemic year was the missed connections with new friends and new teammates. Compared to her club program, this was the jolt of the new.
“Overall, it was a great season,” Zatarski said. “It really showed us how everybody was willing to do anything to help each other.
“Given how many hardships we had to deal with, I thought it was great how everyone was willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.”
The telling moment, Zatarski said, was midfielder Sophia Sommesi, getting emergency minutes at keeper when Romano was unavailable.
“She really surprised me and did a great job.”
Crackel loss to graduation is going to open a difficult position to fill.
McKenna, Maddie Kiefer and Brielle DeForest are physical and dynamic players.
Borcean and Sommesi provide athletic shot-creators in the middle of the attack to provide support for Zatarski and Liljestrand.
At the top of the attack, Dahmers and Sarah Conroy are also sharp and creative offensive threats.
Youth is everywhere. Sommesi, who shuttles between the middle and at the top of the formation, just finished her freshman season, like McKenna. Haley Tu, who just finished her junior year, is another two-way talent to watch.
That Bartlett game that proved such a benchmark for the season had multiple interpretations for the players.
It turned out to be one of the final games of Crackel, who is getting ready to begin her freshman year at the University of Illinois.
“It taught all of us to never take anything for granted,” she said. “You never know the next time you have to quarantine for two weeks. That could be your season.
“We knew we had to play every game as if it were our last game. We didn’t know what was going to happen. I’ve been playing soccer since I was three years old, and I wanted to play the sport I love.
“Everything was not going to be given to you.”