Tanya Aguilar is not one of the selections the 2001 Tribune All-State Boys Soccer Team. She doesn’t meet the two most basic requirements–she does not play high school soccer and, well, she’s not a boy.
But Ben Aguilar’s mother deserves special mention for helping the Benet Academy junior become a first-team All-State midfielder and the common thread to the Redwings’ back-to-back Class A state titles.
Aguilar clicked for 22 goals and 15 assists and is one of only two juniors–the other is Sandburg’s Jed Zayner–on the Tribune’s All-State team. Three Downstaters–Waterloo Gibault’s Ryan Crawford, Dixon’s Phil Doeh and Edwardsville goalkeeper Nate Gibson–are among the team’s nine seniors.
The other first-teamers are Lincoln-Way Central’s Greg Doster and Joe Ducci, Naperville Central’s Dustin Fuller, Bartlett’s Dustin Weiher, Waubonsie Valley’s Derrick Clanton and Fenwick’s Joe Nierzwicki.
There may be millions of soccer moms, but there are few soccer matriarchs like Tanya Aguilar.
“As each kid got older, I knew I couldn’t do all the coaching,” said Manny Aguilar, Ben’s father, who puts in 30 hours a week as an unpaid assistant coach for Henry Wind at Benet.
The Aguilars have five children, and Manny took the responsibility for coaching the oldest boys–Jesus (the family calls him “Chach”) and Patrick. After leaving Benet, Chach scored a school-record six goals in a game for Illlinois Benedictine, then followed coach Louis Mateus to Rockford College and became a Division III All-American. Patrick played at Downers Grove South and is a senior at Rockford. Eighth-grader Veronica, who plays for a boys under-14 club team, is the responsibility of both Manny and Tanya.
That left Nick and Ben up to Tanya.
Nick, a freshman at Wisconsin, starts in the midfield for the Badgers after leading Benet to state title No. 1 and being named a Tribune second-team All-Stater. Ben said he wasn’t pushed into following his brothers’ footsteps.
“It was really my choice,” he said. “My parents would have supported me in any sport. But my parents were into soccer, my brothers were into it–it seemed like a good idea.”
There were a lot of soccer moms on the sidelines at his youth games, but none like Tanya.
“My mom’s really been my coach my whole life,” Ben said. “I thought it was really cool that it was my mom. It’s something you don’t see every day.”
Tanya Aguilar, born a coal miner’s daughter in Harlan County, Ky., competed in gymnastics and softball in high school and college.
“I hadn’t played soccer,” said Tanya, 44 and a technical coordinator for Allstate Insurance, “so I started in a women’s league about 20 years ago.” That was after she met Manny, who grew up in the Pilsen neighborhood and was a member of the last graduating class (1970) at defunct St. Phillip.
She eventually joined a men’s league to play a better brand of soccer. Then Tanya got interested in coaching. She took some classes, learned more about the games and found herself walking the sidelines. Now she coaches two boys teams for a Chicago club.
“I do it more for the kids and their psyches,” she said.
It seems that her coaching technique has paid off. Nick and Ben teamed with Luke Rojo last season in leading the Redwings to a 22-0-4 season. Wind lost 18 seniors from that team, and this year Benet started 1-3 after being outscored 10-2 in the Best of the West tournament.
In the parking lot at Naperville North after a 3-1 loss to Naperville North on Sept. 1, Manny Aguilar and Wind were wondering just what would become of this team. Benet hadn’t played well and seemed a long shot to repeat as state champ.
Wind and Aguilar, who has his own systems-integration business and helped design and install Chicago’s 911 service, may have been ready to call that emergency number. Instead, they remained optimistic.
After all, he still had Ben Aguilar.
“At the beginning of the year, he thought he had to carry the team and had to do it all by himself,” Wind said of Ben, the team’s lone returning starter who had scored 20 goals as a sophomore. “He was trying too hard and trying to kill the ball.”
The Redwings did improve but had an 11-7-1 record entering the state playoffs. That was good enough for only a No. 4 seed in a sectional where host Geneva was seeded No. 1 and favored to win the Class A title.
Benet, led by Aguilar, Matt Soldato, Chris Vitale and goalkeeper Matt Galica, saw to it that that was not going to happen.
The turning point may have come in the sectional semifinals Oct. 18 against Marmion when Ben Aguilar took it upon himself to bang in the winning goal in overtime for a 3-2 victory.
“The ball just explodes off Ben’s foot,” Wind said. “And it moves like a knuckleball.”
Benet then survived a double-overtime, penalty-kick victory over Geneva to win the sectional and went on to repeat as champion.
As if his mother hadn’t done enough, she even was responsible for coaching Galica, who played all 105 minutes of the triple-overtime Class A final on one good leg and made 10 saves.
She had been a goalkeeper in women’s soccer and thought she could help Galica, a physical 6-foot-3-inch senior who played in all of Benet’s 26 games.
“I worked with him over the past year,” said Tanya, who got a lot of help from Andy Wind, Henry’s son.
“People think I’m insane,” said Tanya “But I just can’t turn the kids down.”
THE FIRST TEAM
Ryan Crawford, sr., forward
Waterloo Gibault
Had 25 goals, 13 assists for Class A semifinalist; led potent Metro F.C. club team too.
Joe Ducci, sr., forward
Lincoln-Way Central
With school split, Ned Grabavoy (Indiana) gone, he came through: 21 goals, 21 assists.
Joe Nierzwicki, sr., forward
Fenwick
Breakaway speed, vision, 35 goals, 19 assists–and 4.0 grade-point average.
Ben Aguilar, jr., midfielder
Benet
22 goals, 15 assists and the strongest link to Redwings’ back-to-back titles.
Phil Doeh, sr., midfielder
Dixon
National champ Connecticut wants him after 38-goal (124 for career), 16-assist season.
Dustin Fuller, sr., midfielder
Naperville Central
Coach John Paskvalich ranks DuPage Valley Conference’s best as one of his top three players in 25-plus years.
Dustin Weiher, sr., midfielder
Bartlett
A 3-D player for coach Jim McNamara: Defense + Distribution = Division I.
Derrick Clanton, sr., defender
Waubonsie Valley
Simply controlled the field from the back; may opt for basketball in college.
Greg Doster, sr., defender
Lincoln-Way Central
Michigan State would like to have state’s player with the most dangerous throw-in.
Jed Zayner, jr., defender
Sandburg
Main reason top-ranked Eagles are on a 24-game winning streak and have allowed only 10 goals.
Nate Gibson, sr., goalkeeper
Edwardsville
Goals-against average of 0.71 has helped keep defending Class AA champs unbeaten in the state.
Second team
PLAYER SCHOOL YR. POSITION
Mitch Gilfillan Peoria Notre Dame sr. forward
Jimmy Klatter Geneva sr. forward
Lenny Rizzo St. Joseph sr. forward
Mike Corvo Downers Grove North jr. midfielder
Mike Hutchinson Rochester jr midfielder
Dan Romza Buffalo Grove sr. midfielder
Jonathan Spector St. Viator so. midfielder
Greg Epsom Fremd sr. defender
Brad Johns West Aurora sr. defender
Noah Parra Argo sr. defender
Cole Glassner Sandburg jr. goalkeeper
%%
%%
Honorable mention
(players are seniors unless otherwise noted)
Forwards: Jim Denk, Maine South; Peter Chrobek, Kennedy; John Devae, York; Cupertino Enriques, junior, Morton; Brad Feige, junior, Jacobs; Kevin Hegi, junior, Wheaton North; Paul Herbst, Cary-Grove; Mark Bucz, Serena; Adam Lanter, junior, Edwardsville; Sean Marshall, junior, Lake Forest; Danny May, sophomore, Waubonsie Valley; John Oxtoby, junior, University High; Mario Zubek, junior, Reavis.
Midfielders: Bob Beard, Sandburg; Ernie Billittier, Mundelein; Kevin Earnest, Lemont; Daniel Grasso, junior, Hinsdale Central; Mike Hutchinson, junior, Rochester; Erik Insko, Rockton Hononegah; Sergio Lira, Evanston; D.J. Kosek, Batavia; Alex Lofgren, Glenbrook South; Matt Mahoney, Libertyville; Andrew Monteith, sophomore, Neuqua Valley; Ricardo Way, Amundsen; Nick Wedig, Champaign Centennial.
Defenders: Mike Brown, Lake Zurich; Walter Echeverry, junior, Maine East; Brad Guzan, Providence; Javier Melgar, St. Charles East; Matt Pomeroy, Neuqua Valley; Matt Witt, sophomore, Wheaton Warrenville South; Kyle Zaber, Belleville West.
Goalkeepers: Steve Goletz, Downers Grove South; Rob Luck, Wheaton North; Eric Moore, Bartlett; Erik Schuett, junior, Lake Zurich; Andy Strait, Lincoln-Way Central.
