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Counting On Schoeni 8/31/2005 By Meggie Butzow Amidst the rainy effects of Hurricane Katrina and the chaos that is the first week of school, the Vanderbilt men’s soccer team eagerly awaits the start of the 2005 season. They look to build on the momentum of last year’s break-out season, which saw the team more than double its win total from 2003. And underneath the preseason excitement, understated third-year goalkeeper Kenny Schoeni looks to continue his solid play and similarly improve upon his own break-though season. Schoeni was suddenly vaulted into the starting goalkeeper position early in 2004 when Jamie Burns went down with an injury in the first game of the season. And the rest, as they say, is history: Schoeni went on to start 15 of the 17 games in which he played, finishing with a 6-7-1 record, a total of 72 saves and a solid 2.00 goals against average, clearly playing a major role in the Dores’ refreshingly positive season. His performance becomes more impressive, though, when you realize that the goalkeeper had seen virtually no playing time in the two previous years. Schoeni made the decision to attend Vanderbilt when the soccer program was in the midst of a coaching change (Head Coach Tim McClements, like Schoeni, is now in his fourth year with the program). He hadn’t been offered an athletic scholarship and was told only that he would be welcome to attend walk-on tryouts in the fall. When Vanderbilt offered him an academic scholarship, though, “that made the decision a lot easier,” he admitted. Schoeni, a lifelong soccer player who had absolutely planned to play college soccer, chose to attend Vanderbilt and try out for the soccer team, knowing that there were no guarantees for his future in the game. The team had one spot open when it held fall tryouts his freshman year, Schoeni said. With three goalkeepers already on the roster, the team chose to keep a field player from the handful of players who tried out. “I didn’t know anything about him because I had been in Dallas (the previous year),” said McClements, who took over the position only 12 days before the 2002 season began. “But he was an unbelievable athlete — we saw it during the tryout process. It was just bad timing, but we liked him, liked his attitude.” Coach McClements asked Schoeni to continue to practice with team, but when the coaching staff realized that the number of practicing players cannot exceed the number of roster spots, Schoeni was forced to stop practicing that fall. It was at that point that Schoeni assumed the overlooked position of team manager. “I would have liked to have been able to keep practicing,” he said, “but I wanted to stay involved, so I was technically the team manager. I basically was in charge of pumping up soccer balls and bringing the jerseys out to practice and those kinds of things. But it was a good way to get to know the team and the coaches.” After practicing with the team in the more informal spring season, Schoeni was invited back to the preseason his sophomore year. With three other goalkeepers still on the roster, “it looked like it would be pretty hard to get a spot,” he remembered in his soft-spoken and humble way, “but I guess a couple guys quit over the summer and there were a few cuts… I pretty much got the last spot on the team, I think.” After watching two of his teammates split time in goal for most of the year, Schoeni went out and played well in spring practices and in the preseason of his junior year. When starting goalkeeper Jamie Burns was injured in the first game of the season, against Belmont, Schoeni took over for him, and got the next few starts as well. This quickly became the standard for the season, as he took over the No. 1 position. “The first couple of games we gave up a lot of goals,” he admitted. “But I made some saves, and Coach just kept me in there and we played well, and I was just able to keep playing from there. Once I got my chance, I just tried to make the most of it, because it had taken a long time to finally get my chance.” With no prompting whatsoever, Schoeni acknowledges that the two years he spent working toward playing time were important and necessary, as they gave him ample opportunity to work with goalkeepers coach Eric Vaughter to improve his personal technique and skills. “It was nice; there were a lot of things that I needed to work on over those couple of years,” he said. “I worked a lot on my serves, my footwork and my game knowledge. I still need more work, but my game sense has improved.” Throughout the same years that he spent working on the field, tweaking skills and subtleties here and there, Schoeni was doing much the same in the classroom. Originally a Neuroscience major, he created his own 60-hour interdisciplinary major last spring, entitled “The Mind, the Brain, and their Convergence,” which allows him to study those entities, and the way we think, through several perspectives. As his major covers a wide variety of disciplines, it’s no surprise that Schoeni’s athletic nature is similarly well-rounded. Not only did he grow up playing most sports, but he is the type of player who focuses on the small things in his quest for improvement, McClements noted. “He’s become a better goalkeeper overall” in his three years at Vanderbilt, McClements said, “and he’s improved in all areas of the game. Often, really athletic kids don’t always spend time training in the little areas, but he has spent time doing that.” And despite all the work that Schoeni has put in over the years, the menial manager duties and battles for a roster spot, he still wants nothing more than to shift the attention from himself to his teammates. Yes, he is excited and optimistic about the 2005 season, but his teammates who surround him provide the reason that he can be so enthusiastic. “You know, make sure that you focus on the team,” he suggested politely, after gamely reciting his life story. “We have a great group back — guys who can score goals, a strong midfield and a solid backline.” He went on to name specific teammates who he felt deserved mention in his own feature story. “As a whole, there’s no weakness on the team. We’ve all watched the program grow a lot, and we’re excited for this season. If we play well, up to our potential, we should expect to win every game.” Considering the many ways in which Kenny Schoeni’s career at Vanderbilt seems to be a microcosm of the very soccer program to which is he so important, it’s only fitting that his coach describes him in terms similar to the way he describes the team’s potential: “If he does well,” McClements predicted, “the sky’s the limit. The best way to put it is — he’s a player you can count on.” |
