Stonewall senior has not scored in varsity career -- By Ryan Sonner (Daily Staff Writer)
QUICKSBURG — Fifteen years from now, Nate Ryman will sit down and reflect. Maybe he'll be balancing a son or a daughter on his knee. Maybe he'll be sitting at the bar, tipping one back with his buddy. Either way, he'll have one heck of a story to tell.
He'll talk about how he suffered through six wins and 20 defeats during his first two years on the Stonewall Jackson boys soccer team. In a stunning left turn, however, he'll also mention how he closed out his soccer career by winning back-to-back district championships.
Then the question will surely arise.
"How many goals did you score?"
The answer is both simple and complicated.
"None," Ryman will answer. "But I didn't have to."
That's right. Ryman will likely end his high school soccer career without ever scoring a single goal. He'll never get the chance to make the goalie dive one way while he shoots the ball the other way, but he's had the best seat in the house to see his teammates do just that.
Instead of lighting up the scoreboard, Ryman is the anchor of a rock-solid defensive unit that has been instrumental in Stonewall Jackson's success over the past two years. The Generals are 27-7 during that span and Ryman is a big reason why.
"He was good last year, but he's outstanding this year," Stonewall coach Nate Hissong said.
Even so, closing out a career with zero goals has to be a downer, right?
"Nope," Ryman said without hesitation. "I don't care."
Ryman said he is completely content with staying back on defense. He'll be just fine without a goal, even if he's about the only player on the team without one. Once they figured out how to win, the Generals have been a scoring machine. Heading into tonight's Region B quarterfinal match against George Mason, Stonewall (16-2) has found the back of the net nearly 90 times while surrendering just 14 goals.
"Everybody on the team can score," Ryman said. "They know I don't care. It doesn't bother me and it doesn't bother them."
Anyone who thinks scorers are the most important part of a soccer team has never seen Stonewall Jackson play. On Friday night in the Shenandoah District tournament championship game against Riverheads, Ryman single-handedly saved the day.
The game was scoreless after nine minutes of play, but Riverheads was knocking on the door. The Gladiators sent two quick shots right toward the goal — Stonewall goalie Josh Spence saved the first, but he was forced to dive halfway across the box. The rebound went directly back to Riverheads, and with Spence rendered helpless, the second shot was fired at a wide-open goal.
At the last possible second, Ryman dove in feet first and kicked the ball back into play and out of harm's way. It was the game-changing moment in Stonewall's 4-1 victory.
"Josh got beat," Ryman said after the game. "He came off his line, they shot it and I was where I was supposed to be. That's what I do."
Said teammate Charles Metz: "I thought it was going to be [1-0]. When it came out, my heart was beating so fast."
That remarkable save seemed to light a spark. Only five minutes later, Metz scored the first of two goals to give Stonewall a lead it would never relinquish. With Ryman holding the fort down on the defensive side, the Generals had no worries.
The thing that separates Ryman from the rest of the district's defenders, Hissong said, is his patience.
"He doesn't kick it out of bounds like a lot of others," he said. "When they get the ball, they don't try and do anything with it. He'll make two moves and lay a beautiful pass right to our player. That is very important. Having a controlled pass out of the back really generates a lot of our offense.
"It's one of the things that doesn't show up in the stats."
Hissong isn't the only coach that has taken notice of Ryman's defensive skills. The 6-foot-1 senior was recently named a first-team, all-district selection.
"He deserves it," Riverheads coach Dickie Bell said. "He's so solid back there — nothing flashy, but he makes all the plays."
Hissong has more respect for Ryman and his fellow seniors than anyone else on the team. Not because they're tremendous soccer players, but because they're dedicated to a team that just two years ago had no identity.
Stonewall rarely won a match and was undoubtedly the laughingstock of the district.
"He could have quit after that year," Hissong said of the team's 2-11-2 campaign during Ryman's freshman season. "But he stuck with it."
Not everyone did, though. Several players, some with serious talent, decided against coming out for the team the following year. Apparently, they didn't think the program could be turned around.
They were wrong.
"The most important thing about building a program is getting the kids to come back every year," Hissong said. "[Ryman] has been a good example. He's always been positive."
Sometime in the next two weeks, Ryman's scholastic soccer career will come to an end. And even though he'll probably leave Stonewall without ever scoring a goal, he has been an invaluable asset to a program that has undergone a complete face-lift.
"That's what he'll take from this in the future," Hissong said. "He didn't score any goals, but he was on a team that won two district championships, and he anchored the defense."
