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Undefeated, No. 1 Ohio’s Division III ranking, No. 2 Boys Prep School Top 10 national ranking, Top soccer boarding school in the country - Western Reserve Academy has earned these titles and more for the outstanding performance of the school’s varsity soccer team. The 2012 team achieved a record of 19-0-2, the third time WRA has gone undefeated in its soccer program’s 87-year history.
Boys varsity coach and Director of Athletics & Afternoon Programs Herb Haller ’85 knows how sweet victory feels. The two-time high school soccer All-American was captain of the 1988 Indiana University soccer team that won the Division I national championship. After returning to WRA to work early in his career, Haller later became assistant coach for the University of Akron’s Division I soccer program. Since returning to WRA in 2000 as boys varsity coach, he has taken the school’s soccer program to an astounding record of 173-51-36.
“I take the kids who come to play soccer and put them in a fun, competitive and challenging environment,” says Haller. “It’s what I enjoy most – from daily practice to competition, my goal is to mold WRA players into the best teams in Ohio; we’ve been very successful in doing that. For any prospective student-athletes who have the ambition to play at the next level, whatever that next level is, the WRA soccer program offers the right environment to allow them to develop and make it to the next level.”
Haller mentions outstanding student sophomore Ryan Hassell, “He’s a fantastic soccer player from Southampton, Bermuda, who has scored over 50 goals for Western Reserve Academy in the last two years,” says Haller. “Yet, he’s not just striving on the soccer field, he’s achieving academically. That makes for some great choices as he considers playing at the next level in two years.”
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