Hans Erickson named Gazette Boys Soccer Player of Year
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But when it came time for the area coaches to select the all-New England players, it was clear the senior midfielder's impressive efforts weren't overlooked.
"He won it by a mile," coach Derek Shea said. "He was the highest vote getter and it wasn't even close. All the other coaches recognize that he was that level of player."
Erickson was a three-year starter and absolutely dominated the middle of the field for the Hurricanes the last two season.
Big and strong, he used his height to control the game in the air and had the ball control to own it on the ground, anchoring the defense and setting up the team's offense.
For his accomplishments, Erickson has been named the Daily Hampshire Gazette Player of the Year for boys soccer.
"He's the essential midfielder," Shea said. "He controls the tempo of the game. His job is to break up the development of any attacks, help the back four organize and then he has to distribute and find the right people in front of him. He's one of the guys that's going to help with the first key pass."
Erickson emerged as a true standout in his junior year, during which he helped the Hurricanes reach their second-ever Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament championship.
They lost to Ludlow in penalty kicks and the Lions then went on to win the state title.
This year, teams went into games with game plans specifically designed to limit Erickson. It didn't matter.
"I did get attention my senior year, but one of my biggest focuses was just to keep the same attitude," Erickson said. "It didn't feel much different. I was just playing with my teammates, my friends and just playing hard to win.
"I focused on the team and what we did together. I didn't want to think about it like that. It would just lead away from a focus on the team, which is what I really wanted."
And despite returning just three starters - Erickson and fellow senior captains and Gazette first-team selections Tucker Bixby and Gabe Rudd - the Hurricanes reached the WMass semifinals. Again, they gave the perennial powerhouse Lions all they could handle, but fell 2-1 and again Ludlow went on to win the state title.
"There's definitely some pride in it. In some ways, it makes it that much harder," Erickson said of losing in a competitive game against the eventual state champ. "You wonder if that team did it and we played them so tough, could we have won it if we had advanced? To lose to them and have them go all the way, you have to think about it.
"I feel like the last two years it all kind of came down to us and Ludlow. I feel like if I had lost to another team, we always would have wished we got another crack at them."
In three years with Bixby and Erickson starting, the Hurricanes went a combined 32-16-8, including 24-8-4 over the last two years.
And while Erickson wasn't a big-time goal scorer, he could make the play around the net when needed. It happened in the team's quarterfinal contest against Agawam this year. With the game tied at 1-1 late in the first half, he emerged from a scrum with possession and blasted his fourth goal of the season into the net.
"That really boils down to his understanding of where to be and also his intense desire," Shea said. "These are two guys - Tucker is right with him - whose focus was just immaculate from the warmup on.
"When you are in a moment of crisis like that, a guy like (Erickson) steps up and says we need something right now and gets it done. That's why he's a big-time player."
Off the field
Erickson's leadership and contributions aren't limited to the soccer pitch.
He's a high honors student who's hoping to attend and play soccer at a NESCAC school next year. During the fall, he juggled an extremely challenging class workload, worked a part-time job at A.J. Hastings in Amherst, was president of the school's Best Buddies organization and, of course, cocaptained one of the top soccer programs in WMass.
"It was a lot, but everything I was doing I'm really passionate about," Erickson said. "It was all stuff that I wanted to be doing. I just had to put in the time and get it done."
Best Buddies, a global volunteer organization, works to foster friendships for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"It was something I was really passionate about," Erickson said. "As a freshman, I saw kids who were kind of hassled. I was confused by that. I never understood why someone would want to do that to someone with a disability, so when I found out about it, it was definitely something I was interested in."
Last year, Erickson was pair up with a boy named Dan, who has down syndrome. They spent time playing basketball and hanging out.
"A lot of people think about it as kind of a one-sided deal, like we are helping him out, but he makes me realize a lot about myself," Erickson said. "I love hanging out with him. I'm always smiling because he's so exuberant and such a friendly kid. I wish everyone took the opportunity through this club to experience something like that.
"I don't do it because it makes me feel good about myself, though. It's really because I want to do it for these kids. It's just great to hang out with them. It's a great club and a great experience. Hopefully I can find somewhere to continue to participate in the club in college."
Which college Erickson ends up at is still a work in progress. He is currently considering Amherst, Bates and Middlebury as his likely landing spots, as those NESCAC programs provide the level of competition and academics that interest him.
Wherever he lands, it is certain he'll be missed at Amherst Regional, both between the lines and outside them.
"We are going to miss him on the field, but we will miss him equally off the field," Shea said. "As much as I worry about replacing him on the field, off the field is the biggest piece that I worry about. What human being is possibly going to be able to step and be like Hans?"
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
