Three SYC Strikers make up Lee High School’s Soccer Team and have helped turned around the program.
April 29, 2016 — Ending the 2015 season, the Lee Lancers were winless and looking for a new identity. In the offseason, the team may have found it, as two players from the SYC Strikers club, Andy Mensah and Chris McGhan, decided to join the high school team.
The SYC Strikers are a close-knit team and many of the players have felt that their club team has led them to more exposure and opportunities at the college level. As a team, they thought it would be most beneficial to not play high school soccer in the spring and have competitive practices together in order to prepare for their travel season. However, half the group decided to play last minute before the 2015 season started.
“This year the team made a decision as a group,” SYC Strikers head coach Julian Chang said. “I gave them two decisions: number one play high school during the downtime for club or number two practice more in the spring.”
Having a split squad was not a strong base for the team. Modeling practices for those who were playing competitively and those that were not was tough for a coach to balance.
As a result their club is being represented in eight different schools this spring season.
“It’s been harder for us [to build chemistry] since my team does not see each other everyday, but considering our conditions we have done alright,” McGhan said.
“For the players it may not be in their best interests because spring is when club needs to be playing their best soccer,” Chang said. On the flip side, “having players playing in high school is good for our club. It gives me and the club more visibility.”
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At Lee, Mensah and McGhan were joining fellow Striker Garrett Cox, who played on the Lee team in 2015, allowing two talented players to join a squad that only lost six graduating seniors and would bring a lot of experience onto the field.
“All the guys really knew this was sorta coming. We had really talented players coming in all positions and we put the pieces together and were able to win some big games,” Mensah said.
The junior forward, Mensah, has been a valuable asset for Lee. Early in the season, the Lancers toppled one of the top teams in the region, West Potomac 5-3, led by a hat trick from Mensah. Throughout the season Mensah has already complied the same amount of goals that the entire team had last season. Due to his previous exposure in club, Mensah has complied multiple Division 1 offers and may expand that list this year.
Both Mensah and McGhan are the first to admit that there influence is not the primary reason for the team’s success.
“There are a lot of other good players that I feel have gone unnoticed that have made a significant impact on this season,” McGhan said. Mensah would add, “we have a great team and we’ve put everything together.”
As a whole, the team is sitting at 5-5 on the year with a winnable stretch of games leading to the Conference 13 tournament, with heir five losses coming against teams that have a combined 36-4-6 record.
“We said before the season we want to put a banner in our gym for the first time in a while for our program, but essentially we are gonna take it one game at a time and who knows, the sky’s the limit,” Mensah said.