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the highland park landmark | June 6, 2019 | 29
Girls soccer Coach of the Year
Burnside’s consistency leads to
yearly award for New Trier coach
Michael Wojtychiw
Contributing Sports Editor
It’d be fair to make the
argument that New Trier’s
Jim Burnside is one of the,
if not the, greatest girls
soccer coaches in IHSA
girls soccer history. His
now-529 career victories
are rivaled by only Quincy
Notre Dame’s Mark Longo
and his six career state
titles are the most by any
coach in state history.
This year Burnside led
his squad to an unprecedented
sixth consecutive
trip downstate and for that,
he was named 22nd Century
Media’s Coach of the
Year.
With the amount of soccer
talent in the state, it’s
difficult to have a team
make it to the state’s final
four once, much less
six consecutive times and
13 times overall. So how
does New Trier continually
make the annual trip
to Naperville?
“The kids constantly
buy into the idea of working
hard, doing the little
things, and playing as a
team,” Burnside said. “Our
kids are willing to buy into
what we’re asking them to
do, and are also having fun
at the same time.
“This time is remarkable
to me. We have zero
seniors going on to play
college soccer at any level.
That doesn’t really matter,
but a lot of people gauge
how good somebody’s
going to be, who do you
have as a D1 recruit, who’s
signed, who’s this ... So,
year in and year out it really
is about the will of the
kids, and their ability to
just work hard, and have
fun along the way. There’s
New Trier coach Jim
Burnside was named 22nd
Century Media’s 2019
Girls Soccer Coach of the
Year. Photo Submitted
a ton of luck that goes into
it. You’ve got to put yourself
in the right place.”
This year was different
for Burnside as he had to
replace a good portion of
his starting lineup, including
the majority of his
backline and a good number
of goal scorers.
However, after a slow
start to the season as everyone
was adjusting to
playing with each other,
the Trevians rounded into
form as the season went
along. But even with so
much change, Burnside,
who has been the Trevians’
head coach since 1997,
knew that the best way to
do that was to shape the
team around the players
he had and not necessarily
change the coaching
staff’s coaching style.
“What we do is, each and
every year we look at who
we have, and where the
best place is that they can
contribute, and feel some
success,” he said. “I’ve reflected
on this quite a bit in
terms of I think that’s one
thing I can do as a coach,
because then you have
the experience from year
to year, ‘What’s this team
like? What experience do
I have?’ This team has
always been ... It’s never
been about me, in terms
of the players, it’s always
been about we.
“What we really try and
do, is we try to ... Once
somebody’s in a spot,
they’re the best we got,
and we go with it, we give
them the confidence. Once
you show your confidence
in a player, and give them
the confidence to do the
best they can do, they go
further than you ever think.
While we are demanding,
we also try to empower
our players to flourish.”
Another key part to the
Trevians’ success is what
Burnside calls “serious
fun.” Each year, the coaching
staff asks the team to
have “serious fun,” something
that seems like every
player buys into every season.
“The environment,”
Emma Weaver said. “It’s
competitive, it’s fun, Burnside
always says serious
fun, which I 110% agree
with. That’s why we’re
successful it’s because
we’re competitive, we’re
serious, and we’re having
fun at each and every practice.
“Each player will start
to do better and better and
then it just comes together
especially you see that during
the end of the season. I
think that’s why we’re successful
just because we’re
willing to learn in such a
competitive environment.”
Full story at HPLandmark.
com.
Girls Soccer Player of the Year
Weaver’s progression, dedication
helps Trevians succeed
Michael Wojtychiw,
Contributing Sports Editor
Emma Weaver could
have chosen to play for a
developmental academy
like many in the area do.
Instead the junior chose
to play for her high school,
New Trier, and has flourished
since the day she
stepped on the field as a
freshman on the varsity
squad.
“I knew when I got offered
to go back to Academy,
I knew the day I got
offered, that I didn’t want
to accept it because at
NTGS (New Trier girls
soccer), it’s family to
me,” she said. “I felt like
if it didn’t do, if I did accept
the Academy thing, I
NORTH SHORE
would regret it. That was
my biggest fear.
“And I didn’t want to
live in regret, going to the
games and being ‘Oh I
wish I was out there, I wish
I was playing.’ I didn’t
want to let my teammates
and my coaches down
and I think that says a lot
about the program and the
individual players because
that’s what kind of struck
through me towards high
school because Academy,
yeah competitive, and better
games but it’s the fun
part that what motivates
me and I feel like it motivates
me in the off season
because I work harder because
I have something to
look forward to.”
After scoring 33 goals,
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A 22ND CENTURY MEDIA PRODUCTION
New Trier girls soccer
player Emma Weaver
earned 22nd Century
Media’s 2019 Girls Soccer
Player of the Year honor.
22nd Century Media File
Photo
she was named 22nd Century
Media’s 2019 Girls
Soccer Player of the Year.
The Trevians lost three
players who combined to
score over 40 goals, coaches
looked upon Weaver to
become more of a scoring
threat.
Please see player, 27
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