Who knows how good a soccer player Nick Marchetti would be if he concentrated on the sport year-round?
The multi-talented Hillsboro athlete will find out soon enough – at the collegiate level.
“My goal is to play college soccer,” he said shortly before the calendar flipped to 2024. “I’m leaving my options open. Talking to coaches. That’s my goal.”
Marchetti is the latest local exemplar of an increasingly rare breed in high school sports, the three-sport athlete. He plays soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter and runs track in the spring. But he has done it one better, doubling up in the fall to handle the kicking duties for the football team.
The result is an overflowing stat sheet. Football: 147 extra points in three varsity seasons. Basketball (current season): 42 points, 24 rebounds, 22 assists and 11 steals in five games for the 6-1 Hawks. Track: sixth place in the state (Class 4) in the 300-meter hurdles last spring.
And then there’s soccer. Ninety-five career goals, including 43 this season, both school records. The state coaches association took notice, naming Marchetti to the Class 3 all-state first team, a rarity for a player from a school that finished well below .500 at 9-13-1.
Marchetti also was an easy choice by the coaches in the Jefferson County Activities Association for the JCAA Player of the Year.
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to get that, but I’m glad I got it,” Marchetti said. “There’s always room to improve and set the bar higher. I had a decent team around me. Soccer was my main sport, so I put the time and effort into that, but put extra work into football.”
No one appreciated Marchetti’s talents more than his head coach in soccer, Sam Nansel.
“I can’t help but think that having a player like Nick, everybody knew what (he is), so we had to get creative and make it work with other guys,” Nansel said. “After Nick got the (school) records, we played him at center back in our last two games. He’s equally as good as a defender, so I tried to throw a curveball and we beat Fox (a 2-0 shutout) and put a good fight against Cape Notre Dame (a 3-1 loss in the District 1 playoffs).”
Marchetti’s shots often overpowered goaltenders.
“He developed a lot in the offseason with his club team,” Nansel said. “He also plays club volleyball (as well as) basketball and football and all of that contributed to him being faster and stronger this season.
“He needed to improve on his finishing and he did that this year. He made the most out of his opportunities and his teammates helped get him in spaces to do what he does.”
As a team, the Hawks struggled with a six-game midseason losing skid but rebounded to win four of their last six games and finish second in the conference at 3-2 behind perennial champion Perryville, which has worn the league crown five years running with 25 consecutive conference wins.
Pirate head coach Jerry Fulton and the other JCAA head coaches rewarded Nansel’s resilience and creativity by naming him the league Coach of the Year.
“It was a little surprising, to be honest,” Nansel said. “The last few years (Fulton) has won it and Perryville has the best record, but the (coaches) saw some value in what I was doing.”
Hillsboro’s defense factored into that, with senior goalkeeper Gabe Perry making 148 saves, registering four shutouts and finishing with a 2.90 goals-against average. That earned him a split spot on the all-JCAA first team with St. Pius X junior keeper Kyle Gartner (173 saves, five solo shutouts and a 2.54 GAA for the 6-13-1 Lancers).
“Gabe grew up playing club ball and had a good two years as our starter, and saw time as a (sophomore),” Nansel said. “His mental side got in the way of him being successful at times, but he worked on that and I was proud he took on a leadership role.”
St. Pius head coach Scott Rudolph said he can’t remember there being a tie for conference goalie of the year, but both keepers deserved it.
“I was happy to see it,” Rudolph said. “Kyle’s a great captain who works out nonstop during the summer and with his club team. He came into this season and was ready to go. He will make saves that I don’t know how he made them. I was ready for him to make that jump.”
St. Pius senior forward Adam Foy also made the first team, scoring a Lancer-best 15 goals and making two assists. He finished with 46 career goals and helped St. Pius to its second-place finish in the state (Class 1) as a sophomore in 2021.
Once during practice, Rudolph stood in goal himself to gauge Foy’s shot-making ability. The senior launched a laser beam that “almost took my arm off,” Rudolph said.
Foy and Gartner had frequent one-on-one showdowns between games.
“Kyle didn’t want to get scored on in practice and that pushed Adam and the other players to want to. It was fun to see,” Rudolph said.
“(Foy) worked his butt off in the weight room and out on the field. He’s a great kid all around, and this year he wanted to prove some things and ended up being our first captain named. He did everything we asked of him and is a great leader and I can’t say enough good things about him. He can hit the corners and has power behind it. He has great skills with the ball at his feet.”
For the third straight year, senior midfielder and Lancer co-captain Tanner Koepke is a first-team all-conference pick. He followed up a 2022 campaign of 10 goals and 26 points as a junior with 11 goals and 27 points this season.
Windsor, 11-12 overall and 2-3 in the JCAA, landed senior defenders Noah Harman and Alex Sullivan on the first team for the second year. The two were Owl co-captains and also make their mark for the Windsor track team. Harman, who scored four goals from the back, was a state qualifier in the 200-meter dash last spring.
De Soto was 4-13, including a 2-3 league mark, but closed the regular season with a big 3-2 overtime upset of Seckman at home. Senior striker Blake Christian and junior midfielder Hunter Adams were named to the first team.
Festus was winless (0-5) in the JCAA and 2-18 overall. Junior Cole Vogel played midfield and striker and led the Tigers with five goals and 14 points to earn first-team honors.
“Cole is very deserving of the award,” Festus head coach Austin Burgert said. “He was nominated by our team to be one of our captains, and he was a very good leader for us on and off the field. As far as wins and losses, it’s definitely not where we wanted to be, but there is a lot more to a program than that.”
Burgert said Vogel is a good example of how athletes are also good members of their community.
“He worked his tail off on the field and produced most of our offense and so he’s very deserving and the other coaches felt the same way.”
All-Jefferson County Activities Association boys soccer
First team
Blake Christian, De Soto; Hunter Adams, De Soto; Cole Vogel, Festus; Nick Marchetti, Hillsboro; Aden Garris, Perryville; Kale Adams, Perryville; Adam Foy, St. Pius X; Tanner Koepke, St. Pius X; Noah Harman, Windsor; Alex Sullivan, Windsor; Goalies Gabe Perry, Hillsboro, Kyle Gartner, St. Pius X
Second team
Wyatt Wolf, De Soto; Wyatt Johnston, Festus; Alex Hodge, Hillsboro; Franco Fabbrizzi, Hillsboro; Alex Lee, Hillsboro; Eli Angle, Perryville; Kaden Laurentius, Perryville; Andrew Welk, Perryville; Will Becker, St. Pius X; John Hrin, St. Pius X; Garret Mulder, Windsor; Nathan Saeger, Windsor
Honorable mention
Kaiden Beffa, Festus; Logan Bohn, Festus; Steven Rogoz, Festus; Andrew Snyder, Hillsboro; Treyton Barnett, Perryville; Carter Blechle, Perryville
Player of the Year: Nick Marchetti, Hillsboro
Coach of the Year: Sam Nansel, Hillsboro