Connor Hanrahan made a good impression on Naperville North coach Jim Konrad long before he was old enough to play varsity soccer.
The Hanrahans and Konrads live within a couple of blocks of each other.
“I knew him when he was a little kid,” Konrad said. “My daughter was swimming over at the country club, and Connor comes up, cute little kid, juggling a soccer ball. It was like, ‘Coach Konrad, look what I can do.’
“So even then I knew he had some ability.”
Yet when Hanrahan was a freshman, he wasn’t quite ready for prime time, and he spent that 2021 season on the junior varsity team. He watched Naperville North beat Naperville Central in a Class 3A sectional final.
“Freshman year, I wasn’t as good as everybody, was a little bit smaller, and I just wanted to be on varsity and play because that (sectional final) was super fun to watch,” Hanrahan said. “Right after that, I said, ‘I want to be there next year.’”
Konrad noticed Hanrahan’s enthusiasm.
“So I’m driving home, and I see Connor on his bike, wearing his Huskies soccer shirt, ball in his backpack, riding to Nike Park to go practice by himself,” Konrad said. “So I know in his mind he’s thinking, ‘Just watched my team do something really cool, and I hope I can be a part of that someday.’”
Hanrahan became part of it the following year and joined a back line that began the 2023 season as a major question mark for the Huskies and ended it as an exclamation point. Playing left outside back, Hanrahan teamed with Colin McMahon, Sam Hess and Josh Pedersen to help the Huskies (23-2-3) finish third in 3A.
Now Hanrahan is a senior captain and one of the most gifted, though not most highly touted, players on a team that brings back 10 starters for its quest to win its first state title since 2018.
“Connor definitely brings a different type of energy that we don’t really get from anybody else,” Hess said. “He’s the best athlete on the team, and because of that, when it’s late in the game and everybody has tired legs, we see Connor working, and that motivates the rest of the team to continue to work and defend and finish the game out.
“Now that he’s a captain, he has an even bigger role, which I think he’ll be able to handle perfectly.”
Hanrahan is ready to embrace his role as a captain.
“I think more responsibility is great,” he said. “I’ve always been energetic, like sparky, just a lot of energy, ready to do anything.”
Hanrahan can do a lot on the field. He contributed five assists last season and plays forward for his club team. But his doggedness as a defender is particularly remarkable.
“Watching him defend (Jaxon) Stokes and Noah (Radeke) at practice shows how good he is,” Konrad said. “Anyone that can hang with those two guys is a legit Division I-type defender, and Connor fits that mold.”
But physical skill is not the only thing Hanrahan brings to the Huskies.
“He’s one of the poster boys for the program,” Konrad said. “He’s been a fantastic role model for his classmates and for the kids underneath him.”
Hanrahan is an excellent student and is drawing interest from schools like Yale, Brown, Carnegie Mellon and Babson.
“Connor exudes what this program is about — nothing without work — and Connor works every single day,” Naperville North assistant Steve Goletz said. “There isn’t a game or a practice that goes by where you don’t get 110% from him.
“He’s got such a good balance of being able to make his teammates feel comfortable but also pushing them by holding himself to such a high standard. That’s such an amazing thing to have as a leader. He’s willing to do whatever the coaches ask him to do for us to have the best possible chance to win.”
Hanrahan foresees plenty of wins for the Huskies this season.
“There will be pressure, but I think everybody on our team can take that type of pressure well,” he said. “The most important thing is to keep our heads down and go game by game, not focus on what’s ahead. It will be fun.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
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