'Tradition doesn't graduate': Washburn Rural boys soccer success fueled by continuity and experience

Tradition never graduates is a common saying among successful high school and collegiate programs.

Head coach Brian Hensyel has been part of the soccer program at Washburn Rural for the past 25 years and has had the same coaching staff on the boys' side for the past 17.

Hensyel gives most of the credit to the players, but the combined résumés of Hensyel, junior varsity head coach David Chooncharoen and assistant coach Brian Bell since 2005 backs up the idea of tradition never graduating.

Coming into this season, the three coaches had an overall record of 262-45-14 with 16 Centennial League Titles (the team has won 26 straight overall), 14 regional titles, 10 appearances in the Final Four, four appearances in the state title games (2009, 2012, 2014, 2015) and three state championships (2002, 2009, 2012).

They’ve boasted a 133-2-3 Centennial League record in their time span together, with their only losses coming to Shawnee Heights in 2005 and Manhattan in 2008 and haven’t lost a league game since that loss to Manhattan.

They’ve led teams that have been ranked No. 11 in the NSCAA/Adidas Top 25 National Poll (2009), No. 29 in the ESPN Fab 50 National Poll (2009) and No. 31 in the Top Drawer Fab 50 National Poll (2014).

Washburn Rural coaches have spent years working together

Hensyel arrived at Washburn Rural in ’97 after college and began coaching JV girls’ soccer. In 2005, when he was named head coach of the boy’s team, he brought on Chooncharoen who started a few years after Hensyel as an assistant as well.

Early in Hensyel’s coaching career, he faced Bell, a former JV girls soccer coach at Seaman, as coaches of their respective JV girls’ teams with Hensyel being undefeated. On the last game of the year, Bell beat him.

“About four years later, (Bell) gets a job, comes over to Washburn Rural and isn’t coaching, just working here,” Hensyel said. “I went and found him and said, ‘Hey if you can take out one of my undefeated teams, you’re more than capable of coaching,’

“Since ‘05, it’s been that setup. We all enjoy doing it. We’re all competitive, believe the same things about how a soccer team should play and were good friends. That’s what makes it fun.”

Chooncharoen points to the men's shared philosophy.

“We just sat down and agreed to (how to run the program),” Chooncharoen said. “I was going to instill it in the sophomores and incoming freshman, and that way, when they’re ready for varsity, they know what they’re doing.”

Bell reflected on the "tradition doesn’t graduate" saying.

“First of all, it starts with having great student athletes,” Bell said, “good soccer players that are great kids and that happens every year.”

Chooncharoen said his eighth-grade son has wanted to play soccer for the school since first grade.

"It's tradition and people want to be a part of it," he said. "It's been a while since we've won (a state title), but every year, a group wants to get back and get on the banner. That’s the goal.

"We've won league, what 26 years in a row? No senior class wants to lose it. It's tradition. No one wants to be the one to lose it."

Bell said while the coaches have the same expectations and goals, working together for so long allows them the comfortability of seeing the same things.

“One of the nice things about working together for so long, we can kind of finish each other’s sentences,” Bell said. “In addition to that, we all have our different specialties and it seems to work well.

“Brian does a great job leading the program, David does a great job getting players ready for the next level, and I try and assist them both and fill my niche in there.”

Washburn Rural's soccer tradition is older than the players

The laundry list of accolades achieved by the coaches and their teams is longer than some current players have been alive.

Senior goalkeeper Wyatt Arnold, who came into the season with 28 career shutouts, 10 shy of the state record held by another Rural alum, has been around the program since his brother Finn played.

But he said he didn’t fully grasp the success until he got to high school himself.

“It’s not just the fact we get a lot of good players here and we have a lot of good players at this school,” Arnold said. “But you put the players here at any other school in the state, and I don’t think the success would be as good as it is here. What they do, they’re good at it, they keep it the same.

"We stay with that plan and it helps us win games.”

Senior midfielder Joe Morse, who returned to the starting lineup this year after missing all of last season with a torn ACL, added that it was a community thing to come out to soccer games.

“Everyone since middle school, you come out and watch because everyone you know is on the soccer team or talks about it,” said Morse. “Everyone supports this team and knows how important it is and how special it is what we have going on over here.”

Morse’s return to the field has been a process, saying he felt fully comfortable returning from his injury in June when the team began summer workouts.

“I appreciate every second and practice with this team whether good or bad,” he said. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

While he acknowledged the goal for the team was to go further after their loss in the state quarterfinals last year, his goal has been to be involved as much as possible this year.

“I realized how much I took this program, the coaches and the players for granted,” Morse said. “I took everything for granted sophomore year, and now that I’m back, I don’t have any personal goals — just make my teammates better, have as much fun as possible and enjoy it while it lasts.”

Senior defender and captain Mason Grogan recognized the success as soon as he got to high school.

“As soon as I got to freshman year, I realized this program is legit and these coaches know what they’re talking about,” Grogan said. “I played JV my freshman year, then came to varsity games and was like, ‘I want to be there one day.’”

This year's team has high expectations

This year, the team returned most of its starting lineup with all of returning players having varsity experience.

During the offseason, Hensyel said players worked to get in shape to play the style they like to play: fast and aggressive.

“In the summer instead of going really hard, it can be a long season, I like to use the summertime as a chance to just enjoy playing the sport,” Hensyel said. “We would have a max of three workouts a week, a few scrimmages. We try and have as much fun with it as possible because once the season starts it gets pretty serious.”

Grogan agreed.

“They push us very far, but they still make the sport enjoyable,” he said. “It’s the balance of, ‘Hey I’m going to push you guys to your limits but still make it fun and enjoyable,’ and not burning us out is a great combination.”

With the amount of returning talent and always high expectations, it’s a balancing act of knowing where they want to be at the end of the season and not overlooking a game.

“In order to be successful, you can’t look ahead too much. You have to do the work each week,” Hensyel said. “But our goal every year is to be at the top, to be a team that has a chance to win a state title.”

Arnold acknowledged the pressure that comes with playing for such a storied program.

“Sometimes that gets in your head, and you just don’t play as well because you think you’ve got (the win),” Arnold said. “But this year, we're better than most years at balancing that because a lot of these guys have played with some of the best players to come through Rural.

“They’ve seen those teams and they know what we can be. They know even though we're good we still have work to do, and that does keep us humble in the same way. That’s how we balance that.”

Grogan said the team can sometimes get ahead of themselves but needs to take every game seriously.

“We’ve always had goal of state championship in mind,” he said. “We’d rather win state than the league. We’re heavily focused on getting back there and getting it done this time.”

Morse said Hensyel keeps players humble.

“That guy doesn’t let us get out of our head,” he said, “and he’s a terrific coach because of it. He keeps us hungry and humble. Because of him, we are where we’re at.”

Seth Kinker can be reached at skinker@gannett.com or 417-312-1300

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Washburn Rural boys soccer hopes to keep 26-year league streak alive