Despite their perfect win-loss record, the path that has brought the Hannibal Pirates to the brink of winning their first Class 4 soccer state championship has been anything but sunshine and rainbows.
In a TalkBack conversation on KHMO on Tuesday, Pirates head coach Jeff Gschwender addressed the unstable nature of Hannibal’s soccer program over the past two seasons.
“We have faced a lot of adversity in recent years and that is really a testament to how strong our children are.” Gschwender said. “Our seniors have had three different head coaches in four years of soccer. Just the ability to focus on different philosophies of what they are being taught (shows that) adversity really doesn’t affect them much in the last couple of years.”
“We didn’t play our best football in the last two games, a lot of adversity, and they stood their ground and continued to play until the last moment. When you have kids who do that, they will be successful. They don’t. It doesn’t matter if it’s in football, If it is in life, whatever it is “
Gschwender acknowledges that Friday’s state title game against Smithville will be Hannibal’s toughest test of all. He describes the Warriors as, “A very well trained team. They are not very flashy. They are more methodical, they will put together long shots and they have a very tight defense.”
You can listen to our full conversation with Hannibal’s trainer, Jeff Gschwender, here:
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