The 2019 district champion soccer team was one of the best Elder soccer teams in recent memory. This stacked Elder team went 12-6-2 on the season.

The team was led by seniors Carson Owens, Ben Witsken, Tyler Jansing, Cam Jansing, Greyden Deutenberg, Anthony Rollison, Mike Abel, Connor Ammon, Nick Hunter, and Nathan Bill.

Accomplishments

Connor Ammon, Carson Owens, and Nathan Bill made the All-GCL first team and Nick Hunter and Andrew Mueller made the honorable mentions. Along with this, Nick was an Academic All-Star.

Ammon was their leading goal scorer with 14 goals as well as having nine assists to go with it, being second in goals and assists in the GCL. His legendary bicycle kick was the center of conversation for weeks, catching the eye of Elder soccer fans.

Along with Ammon, now senior goalie Kyle Dressman was first in saves with 104, proving that this team’s juniors and sophomores also contributed to the success.

The player’s words

I had the honor of talking with Nathan Bill, and I asked him what his favorite moment of the season was. His response was that he loved playing with his little brother Leo Bill, who is currently a junior, and reaching the district title as brothers.

Along with this, I asked Nathan what the hardest moment of the year was. He responded with two, “It was very hard watching Jacob (Steins) getting injured for the rest of the season, and also I would say it was very emotional. Another hard moment was when I had to walk off the field for my final game at Elder.”

I also got in touch with Nick Hunter and asked him the same questions.

“For sure winning districts was my favorite. It was so much fun. Winning anything in Ohio as a soccer team is tough so I was happy about that.” Nick continued, “The hardest moment was when I sprained my ankle in the first sectional game. It was a fat dub we were winning like 6-o, but then I had to play the rest of the season with a hurt ankle because I didn’t want to let the team down by not being on the field playing. It was hard but I overcame it because I’m a champ.”

And these two seniors were champs, being key pieces to their success.

I then asked now seniors Jacob Steins, Andrew Mueller, and Jake Russell about their favorite moment of the season, and they all responded with the same thing as Nick, “winning districts.”

Jacob Steins said, “The atmosphere was electric,” about the game. Listening to them talk about the feeling they had, I could tell they could go on and on and on.

I then proceeded to ask what the hardest moment was of the season.

“Losing to X kind of sucked,” said Mueller. And Russell told me that the locker room after losing to Lakota East at Regionals was a hard moment to deal with.

Though the losses were tough, it’s clear that these players were proud of how they performed.

My observations

I came to multiple games, but the game that stood out to me was the Sectional game against Middletown.

Witsken, Tyler Jansing,  Ammon and Nathan Bill each had one goal, while Cam Jansing had two goals. Owens, Ammon, Stedam, and Jansing assisted on these.

It was absolute domination by the Panthers. The chemistry between the players was incredible, each player fought hard every minute of the game. This game was, to me, the best representation of this team. I watched these amazing athletes play their butts off, not just for themselves, but for their brothers.

This was not just your everyday soccer team, the 2019 soccer team was a family.