The 2023 All-Aegis boys soccer team: Comparisons explain command of Player of the Year, John Carroll senior Eddie Smith
The comparisons help explain a lot.
“To make kind of a weird comparison,” John Carroll boys soccer coach Jim Fendryk said, “he reminds me of sending a missile into a tackle.”
That missile is senior center back Eddie Smith, The Aegis 2023 boys soccer Player of the Year, who helped the Patriots charge to consecutive MIAA A Conference championship game appearances. The two-time team captain and Loyola Maryland signee finished with four goals and a trio of assists, while his forcibly propelling nature helped secure seven shutouts his senior season.
“The [other] word that comes to mind is relentless,” Fendryk added. “It’s like having a Ray Lewis on the soccer field. He’s just nonstop.”
Smith has always been that way.
When Fendryk first noticed him, Smith was 12 years old playing club soccer for FC USA. Even then, Fendryk said, he had an innate ability to defend with sharp timing on tackles. Fendryk jotted mental notes.
As he grew up, those traits only strengthened. To which Fendryk carefully added a few more lofty analogies: “It’s like watching” masterful former Italian defenders, Fabio Cannavaro or Paolo Maldini.
“I saw it when he was little and I’m like, ‘Let’s give it a couple years and see if it’s still there,’” the coach said. “It’s something that never left him and he only got better over time.”
That Ray Lewis missile quasi resembling a pair of soccer legends makes more sense when remembering a conference bout with Loyola Blakefield in 2021, Smith’s sophomore year.
He took a mean elbow to the corner of his right eyebrow, just inside the temple. There was nothing malicious about the collision with head and limb reaching to meet an incoming corner kick. But it soon left blood gushing down the side of his face, painting his all-white jersey.
Smith, by rule, was forced off the field to, at the very least, be cleaned up. The sideline procedure required all hands on deck.
“I had our assistant coaches dumping peroxide all over my shirt and my hands and my eye to wash all that blood away,” Smith said. “Then I had [Fendryk] wrapping my head up in this gauze so I could keep playing.”
Fendryk took one look at Smith drenched in peroxide on a cold, windy day and said, “Man, I don’t know if you’re gonna be able to go back in.” Smith didn’t waiver. He looked back up at his coach, his jersey largely cleaned up while blood careened to his cheek bone, and said, deadpan, “No, I’m going back in. I’m finishing the game.”
Super glue from the med kit helped keep his eye intact. Fendryk gave a shrugging look over to Smith’s parents. “He just looked at his parents and said, ‘I’m playing. There’s no way.’”
To Smith’s reluctance, his mother urged a trip to the emergency room later that evening. After three hours in the waiting room, nurses offered to stitch up the gash. But Smith refused, knowing stitches would sideline him until they healed. “There was no way, I wasn’t gonna play.”
To his mother’s reluctance, the then-16-year-old was able to overrule his parents. His eye healed fine with liquid glue and a few steri strips keeping it intact.
“He told the doctor,” Smith’s father remembers, “‘There’s no way you’re putting stitches in me. I ain’t missing no games.”
“I always grew up as a tough little guy,” Smith said. “My height doesn’t really help so I need the grit and I need the fight.”
There’s more to Smith than his relentless physicality. He is to John Carroll what the sticky substance was to his eye.
When a group of eighth graders were deciding where to play high school soccer, Smith’s decision, according to Fendryk, helped sway friends like CJ Supan, Christian Rugel and Tyler Mezzedra from their Pipeline Soccer Club team.
As a junior, Smith took over responsibilities of the coveted pregame speech. He’s always first out to the field. He helps grab equipment, move goals and bring the water. Some of Smith’s teammates even refer to him as the dad of the group, the one they look to in times of need.
To that, one more comparison.
In 2018, when New York Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley was a five-star prospect and a senior at John Carroll, Fendryk remembers longtime Villanova coach Jay Wright paying a visit. The Hall of Fame coach, who eventually lost that recruiting battle to Kentucky, would drop in two-to-three times a week in street clothes without telling anyone.
Fendryk remembers Wright getting to the gym particularly early, sitting by himself. Just to observe.
“I asked him about it when I had a chance to meet him,” Fendryk said. “He said, ‘The biggest thing for me is if I’m coming down and I’m watching guys play basketball, I already know they’re good basketball players. But what I want to see is how they interact with their guys. … Are they guys that project that they are way better than everybody else or are they guys that buy into the team culture and what the coach is saying?
“I often think about Eddie in that comparison.”
All-Aegis first team
Brendan Coldiron, Harford Tech, senior, forward
Coldiron was Harford Tech’s key player up front, finishing with 13 regular-season goals and 12 assists. He would later be the hero leading Cobras to the program’s first state title.
Josh Petty, John Carroll, senior, forward
The four-year starter played in all 60 games of his high school career, capping his senior campaign with 13 goals and nine assists. Petty also scored John Carroll’s lone goal of its conference final loss.
Christian Rugel, John Carroll, senior, forward
Rugel netted eight goals with nine assists in the MIAA A Conference. He has been a four-year varsity starter for the Patriots and is committed to play at Salisbury University.
Connor Ellis, John Carroll, senior, midfielder
The central defensive midfielder had three goals and two assists this fall. He was also a team captain now committed to Salisbury University.
Diego Peralta, Patterson Mill, senior, midfielder
Peralta was a three-year starter who finished this fall with five goals and a whopping 19 assists. He also led the Huskies in minutes played.
Dylan Sayer, Perryville, junior, midfielder
The Panthers junior led his team in goals with 25 and 11 assists en route to a second consecutive state semifinal appearance.
Cole Schultz, North Harford, junior, midfielder
Schulz netted 11 goals with seven assists from the midfield from a strong Hawks team that made a second consecutive deep playoff run.
Paytn Hulbert, Perryville, junior, defender
According to Perryville coach Chris Tome, Hulbert was the top defender he had seen all season. The junior helped record six clean sheets. Tome said his “soccer IQ allows him to never let anyone get in behind.”
Travis Kozak, C. Milton Wright, senior, defender
Kozak was a dominant center back and a big reason the Mustangs finished as undefeated league champions.
Matt Siedlecki, North Harford, senior, defender
Siedlecki’s defensive prowess for the Hawks earned him a first-team All-Aegis spot for the second consecutive season.
CJ Supan, John Carroll, senior, defender
Supan was a four-year starter who scored three goals and assisted four more. More notably, he was part of a defense that finished with seven clean sheets.
Jake Adams, C. Milton Wright, senior, goalkeeper
Adams was the anchor at the back end for the Mustangs and a key reason behind their success in 2023.
All-Aegis second team
Kai Gibson, Patterson Mill, sophomore attack
Matt Luk, C. Milton Wright, senior, attack
Vinnie Wysong, Patterson Mill, senior, attack
Aiden Warren, Harford Tech, junior, midfielder
Austin Hofmann, John Carroll, senior, midfielder
Chris Jimenez, Harford Tech, junior, midfielder
Wyatt Molyneux, Havre de Grace, senior, midfielder
Ben Sellers, Bel Air, senior, defender
Demayne Trotter, Harford Tech, senior, defender
Jack Priebe, Harford Tech, sophomore, defender
Owen Conway, Bel Air, senior, defender
Tyler Mezzedra, John Carroll, senior, goalkeeper
