43
Lakeview’s Mailach receives top coaching honors
By Doug Chapin
CORTLAND
Lakeview High boys soccer coach Nate Mailach and many of his peers in the Mahoning Valley sometimes must feel as if they are banging their heads against a wall.
Year after year, the best high school soccer teams — boys and girls — from the Valley head into regional tournament play with high hopes. Invariably they return with state tournament hopes dashed.
Mailach’s Bulldogs are no exception. They have been beaten by Richfield Revere and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in regional semifinal games each of the last two seasons.
Valley teams have not been to the final four since Cardinal Mooney’s second-place finish in 2005. The Cardinals won a state title in 2002 and also finished second in 2004. Canfield was second in the state in 1989. No area girls team has been beyond the regional level.
Despite the frustration, area coaches and players are being recognized for their efforts. Mailach was named the Division II Ohio boys coach of the year by the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association, and Canfield’s Phil Simone earned the same honor in Division II on the girls’ side.
Mailach also was selected by the national soccer coaches association as NSCAA/Adidas Region IV (Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana) coach of the year. He has been nominated for the NSCAA/Adidas national coach of the year. The selection will be announced in January.
Mailach was joined in receiving all-region honors by five area players, Ken Kilpatrtick of Austintown Fitch, Jennifer Morris of Canfield, Seyla Perez of Howland, Jake Young of Lakeview and Greg Bable of Crestview.
Those five also earned first-team all-state honors along with Byron Abrigg and Juliana Vazquez of Cardinal Mooney, and Jenna Parry of Champion.
Area players earning all-state second-team acclaim were Dylan Seybert of Canfield, Carolyn Balzano of Poland, John Crow of Ursuline, Patrick McCarthy of South Range, Nicole Rodomsky of Warren JFK, Allison Pavlik of Lakeview, Laura Hall of LaBrae, Jacob Jones of Lordstown, Mackenzie Gatchel of United, and Ben Meardith of Badger.
“I was kind of shocked to get the state coach of the year actually, and I never really thought twice about the regional coach of the year or being nominated for national coach of the year,” Mailach said. “But it’s a great honor and feels great to be recognized.
“It’s something I’d like to share with my two assistant coaches [Brian Phillips and Perry Phiel] who work just as hard as I do.”
Mailach has a 134-37-9 career record including four years at Champion, one at Austintown Fitch and five at Lakeview. Young has been a key component of the Bulldogs’ success the last two seasons which included an 18-2 mark this past fall.
“He’s definitely been an important piece to our puzzle the last two years. He’s great with the ball on his foot, he’s great at setting up teammates,” Mailach said. “He scored 20 goals and had 15 assists out of the center midfield position and he scored some pretty big goals. He is a big-game player and he is a kid that loves soccer.”
Mailach said he thinks Lakeview has at least one more big season coming.
“I thought a couple of years ago that we would have a three-year window where we could compete for the district title every year with next year being the third year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys coming back so anything less than a district title will be a major disappointment for that group.”
What will it take for area schools to compete in soccer at the level of schools in the Cleveland and Akron metro areas?
“It comes down to dedication to the game. Those kids in Cleveland and Akron are playing year-round,” Mailach said. “They aren’t playing basketball or running track, they’re like soccer robots. In order for us to compete with that we have to have kids with that same mindset. I think we’re closing the gap a little bit.”
Perhaps 2013 will be the year the head-banging results in an area team breaking through to the state tournament.