The game was tied 1-1. 

   With four minutes on the clock, number 17 hit the ball off a corner toward the goal where the Cranbrook keeper punches the ball back into the field.  Number 8 runs down the field and corner kicks the ball from just inside the 18 yard box into the upper 90.  The ball soars over the players heads and into the goal. 

   “Adrenaline rushed through all of us as we ran back to half field,” explains selected 2011 first team All-State midfielder, Senior Co-Captain Will Neef.  “I looked back over my shoulder at the clock, and knew if we held on for four minutes, we would become the first ever district champions.”

   On October 21, the Varsity Soccer team had their first ever districts win.  11 days later, on November 1, the team played Lakeshore high School at the regional final where they continued to make Andover history with their 2-0 win.

   “When Darren put that shot in the net, I knew it was going in,” explains Coach’s award winner and Co-Captain Nick Shabino.  “Before [Cranbrook] hit that corner kick, I knew we were going to win.  It was also really cool how all the fans rushed the field.  It was just an amazing feeling; I’ve never felt that before.”

    “It was an indescribable feeling,” describes Neef, also the team chosen most valuable player.  “First there was just the initial feeling that [we’ve] won the game and [then] the crowd stormed the field.  It really sunk in when we were getting the medals.  Just to know that we were the first District champs ever in Andover soccer history is unbelievable.”

      Neef explains that this moment was “something special” because even though the team had won the 1978 state championship, they have never won districts or regionals because neither event was in existence at the time.

     “I felt a certain amount of relief because we had been so close so many times and it was nice to get the monkey off [our] back,” says  Twelve Year Varsity Soccer Coach Jeff Parkinson.  “I was very happy for the guys.  A lot of alumni have been contacting me, telling me how they came close, but came up short when they were playing.  I feel like we are winning it for them too.  [However], while winning districts is a little bit of relief, winning Regionals was just pure joy.”

  After beating the Trenton High School Trojans 2-0 in the first round of Regionals, the Barons went on to beat the Lakeshore High School Shorians 2-0.    

  “Neither team wanted to give anything up and they weren’t afraid to give up fouls if it stopped the attack,” explains Shabino, who played the entire 80 minute game.

  The week before going into the semi-state round against the Avondale High School Yellow Jackets,  Neef explains that “winning [became] contagious and I think that [was] the feeling on our team [and throughout the high school].  We all want[ed] to win.” 

Neef continues, “Once you win a big game you just want to win the next biggest game because the stakes keep getting higher and higher and you just keep getting more and more adrenaline.”

    According to Senior Stefan Frister, three seniors arrived to the Sunday practice before    Districts showing off their newly shaved mohawks in an attempt to inspire their team. 

 “[The mowhawks] started out as a joke,” says Parkinson.  “When they started doing it they asked if I was going to [get a mohawk] and I said I didn’t think so.  Even Bill Boyle, the Model High School Principal, came in and asked when I was going to do it.  And I said, ‘you know, if we will regionals we will see’.  I made a documented oral commitment that if we won regionals, I would [get a mohawk].  We won regionals, so I’m a man of my word.”

   Neef adds, saying, “I had an idea that if we won regionals that I would shave [the letters] PAC into my head, which stands for Peter Anthony Catcho [who died last year].  I put PC [Peter Catcho] on the bottom of my shoes at the start of districts.  I just really wanted to [shave it onto my head] because in soccer you are always thinking through your brain as much as through your heart.  I felt that he was with me the whole time and I just wanted to do as much as I could to represent him.”

  With their newly shaven heads, Coach Parkinson and his team were followed by three Bloomfield Hills fan busses, on November 1, transporting almost 130 high school students to Avondale High School’s soccer field for the semi-state game.

    “Even though we lost [2-1] I can’t believe how far our team made it in the playoffs.  A lot of teams thought we would get out earlier, but we persevered,” says team chosen most improved player, Senior Lawrence Varley, of the loss against the now State Champions.  “We made it all the way until the end of the season, until the semi-state final.  It showed how hard our team worked throughout the year to get there and the determination our team had.”

   “The thing about the end of the [semi-state] game is that there were tears,” adds Lawrence’s mother, Marianne Varley.  “After the tears, they were over it.  There was no bitterness.  Nobody blamed anybody.  That’s really important because it’s the losses that show what the team is all about and I think [as a result] they will all be lifelong friends.  They are a great group of boys and they truly are brothers.  That is what the loss showed us all.  To me, as a parent, that was the biggest win of all.”

   Neef concludes saying,

“We worked really hard to

get here and I could not be more proud of my team.  Throughout the season and at the State-Semi finals especially, it proved that we are not only a team, but a family.”