Team preview: Loyola
By Bill McLean
Loyola’s girls soccer players got into the spirit of World Down Syndrome Day earlier this month and wore unusual foot coverings.
“Crazy socks,” Ramblers second-year coach Shannon Hartinger said.
Wearing the socks — think garish colors added with never-before-seen pairings — raised Down Syndrome awareness on March 21. The World Down Syndrome Day’s “Lots of Socks” campaign also encouraged supporters to wear mismatched pairs.
Or even three socks on each foot.
Quizzical observers asked questions; unusual sock owners answered by talking about Down Syndrome.
Awareness of the genetic disorder was pulled up, way up.
Hartinger’s Ramblers, meanwhile, continued to hope they’ll be able to don their soccer socks for matches at some point this spring. COVID-19 concerns closed Illinois schools and sidelined all sports indefinitely in mid-March.
School officials have cancelled all of Loyola’s matches through April 20.
“We have weekly zoom meetings,” said Hartinger, who also serves as a physical therapist with the North Suburban Special Education District. “We’ve sent our players weekend workouts. We’ve given them fun fitness challenges, too.”
Hartinger’s freshman-laden squad went 10-7-3 last spring, and no fewer than four current sophomores made this spring’s Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List: forwards Kathryn Diblik and Kaitlyn Kurtz, midfielder Grace Ehlert and back Molly Sipe.
Ehlert is a tri-captain, along with senior forward and Yale University recruit Meredith Phillips and senior back Grace Cutler.
Among Hartinger’s other top midfielders is senior Franny Hill.
“I like our mix of senior leadership and young talent,” Hartinger said. “It’s also a good mix in general, with great diversity at all positions.
“We have a strong attack and a solid defense.”
And a sturdy commitment to social service. Hartinger’s selfless Ramblers volunteered their time and energy at Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit in Libertyville, en route to a team retreat in Lake Geneva, Wis., March 6-8. In Libertyville they filled Haiti- and Jamaica-bound packages with nutritional foods.
They then bonded just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border through a range of team-building activities, including a scavenger hunt.
“It was a great opportunity for our experienced and new players to get together in a different setting and do things together,” Hartinger said. “It united them. We were fortunate, getting to spend that much time together before the school shut down.”
Footnotes
Loyola Academy fell 1-0 to Maine South in a Class 3A regional final last spring. … Ramblers coach and South Carolina native Shannon Hartinger played soccer at North Carolina State. She was a forward in college and a forward/midfielder at Christ Church Episcopal School (K-12) in Greenville, South Carolina. … Former Ramblers star forward Maggie Brett, a Glenview resident and two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater, was on the roster as a freshman last fall at Washington University in St. Louis. She finished her prep career with 50 goals and 29 assists after seeing limited action last spring; Brett suffered an ACL tear in the offseason. Chicagoland Soccer recognized her as one of two inaugural honorary selectees on its 2019 Girls All-State Team; Barrington forward Ashley Prell (Class of 2019), also a victim of a major knee injury, was the other.
By Bill McLean
Loyola’s girls soccer players got into the spirit of World Down Syndrome Day earlier this month and wore unusual foot coverings.
“Crazy socks,” Ramblers second-year coach Shannon Hartinger said.
Wearing the socks — think garish colors added with never-before-seen pairings — raised Down Syndrome awareness on March 21. The World Down Syndrome Day’s “Lots of Socks” campaign also encouraged supporters to wear mismatched pairs.
Or even three socks on each foot.
Quizzical observers asked questions; unusual sock owners answered by talking about Down Syndrome.
Awareness of the genetic disorder was pulled up, way up.
Hartinger’s Ramblers, meanwhile, continued to hope they’ll be able to don their soccer socks for matches at some point this spring. COVID-19 concerns closed Illinois schools and sidelined all sports indefinitely in mid-March.
School officials have cancelled all of Loyola’s matches through April 20.
“We have weekly zoom meetings,” said Hartinger, who also serves as a physical therapist with the North Suburban Special Education District. “We’ve sent our players weekend workouts. We’ve given them fun fitness challenges, too.”
Hartinger’s freshman-laden squad went 10-7-3 last spring, and no fewer than four current sophomores made this spring’s Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List: forwards Kathryn Diblik and Kaitlyn Kurtz, midfielder Grace Ehlert and back Molly Sipe.
Ehlert is a tri-captain, along with senior forward and Yale University recruit Meredith Phillips and senior back Grace Cutler.
Among Hartinger’s other top midfielders is senior Franny Hill.
“I like our mix of senior leadership and young talent,” Hartinger said. “It’s also a good mix in general, with great diversity at all positions.
“We have a strong attack and a solid defense.”
And a sturdy commitment to social service. Hartinger’s selfless Ramblers volunteered their time and energy at Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit in Libertyville, en route to a team retreat in Lake Geneva, Wis., March 6-8. In Libertyville they filled Haiti- and Jamaica-bound packages with nutritional foods.
They then bonded just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border through a range of team-building activities, including a scavenger hunt.
“It was a great opportunity for our experienced and new players to get together in a different setting and do things together,” Hartinger said. “It united them. We were fortunate, getting to spend that much time together before the school shut down.”
Footnotes
Loyola Academy fell 1-0 to Maine South in a Class 3A regional final last spring. … Ramblers coach and South Carolina native Shannon Hartinger played soccer at North Carolina State. She was a forward in college and a forward/midfielder at Christ Church Episcopal School (K-12) in Greenville, South Carolina. … Former Ramblers star forward Maggie Brett, a Glenview resident and two-time Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater, was on the roster as a freshman last fall at Washington University in St. Louis. She finished her prep career with 50 goals and 29 assists after seeing limited action last spring; Brett suffered an ACL tear in the offseason. Chicagoland Soccer recognized her as one of two inaugural honorary selectees on its 2019 Girls All-State Team; Barrington forward Ashley Prell (Class of 2019), also a victim of a major knee injury, was the other.