Athlete of the Week: Sean Coleman

Sean Coleman’s fellow Blue Jays looked on, fingers crossed, struggling to keep the rain out of their eyes to make sure they could see the game’s final play.  The rain was thundering down, and players’ jerseys looked as if they were painted onto their bodies as gusts of 30 mph winds flew across the Homewood turf.

After 100 minutes last Thursday night, the Jays were still locked at zero with the McDaniel Green Terror in what was a must-win conference affair for both teams.

As the clock ran past the 90th minute, the game turned to golden goal in overtime. And then, finally, the Jays got the break they were hoping for.

Coleman, a junior forward listed at 6’3 and 185 pounds, was crossing the field, searching for a pass when he was tripped 30 yards outside the McDaniel goal.  In a scenario where the first goal to be scored would be the game winner, a penalty kick was exactly what the Jays wanted and the Green Terror feared.

Not only that, but Hopkins was sending its top goal-scorer to the line.

A year ago, Sean Coleman could have never dreamed of the situation he was facing.  Not only did the idea of shooting a penalty kick with the chance to win the game in the midst of a quite formidable storm seem far-fetched, but just playing soccer for Johns Hopkins was hardly a blip on the radar last year.

Coleman, a junior, is in his first year at Hopkins after transferring from the University of New Hampshire, a Division-1 program, where he was named the team’s Rookie of the Year in 2008.  But after starting just five of the Wildcats’ 18 games last season, it was time for a change.

“I didn’t like the style of the coaching staff at UNH,” Coleman said, a 2007 graduate of Exeter High School in New Hampshire.  “I came in with different expectations of the team, coaches and program than what actually happened.  I love soccer, and I want to make something of it so I wanted to move to somewhere I would enjoy it more.”

After his sophomore campaign, Coleman began searching for a new home. “I didn’t want to go D3—I was hoping to go Ivy League or a good academic Division-1 school, but then I got a Facebook message,” he said.

The message that essentially brought Coleman to campus was from his good friend from back home, junior midfielder Tony Gass.

“He said that he had heard I was going to transfer and told me to really consider coming to Hopkins,” Coleman said.

Coleman and Gass’ friendship and soccer days go way back, even before their rivalry in high school.

“I knew Sean from playing club soccer back in New Hampshire,” Gass said.  “I also played in a professional development league with him two summers ago so that is how we stayed in touch.”

From this relationship, Gass knew Coleman would mesh well with the Blue Jay attitude.

“I knew Sean would be a good fit with us because he is talented and motivated. He brings a different mentality to playing forward that complements our other attacking pieces well, specifically Evan Kleinberg and Scott Bukoski,” Gass said.

Gass was an integral part of Coleman’s recruitment process.

“Coach Appleby had hardly ever seen me play, so it was really Tony who talked me up and got me recruited here,” Coleman said.  “[Coach Appleby] took a leap of faith in getting me here.”

The combination of great academics, a winning program, and some gentle persuasion by Gass led Coleman to Division 3 athletics.

“Hopkins has a great soccer program, but the appeal of coming here was really the academics; obviously it’s top-notch,” Coleman said. “I wanted to know that if I blew my knee out tomorrow, I would still have a Hopkins degree.  It wasn’t just about soccer.”

But coming into the season, there were no guarantees for Coleman.  Despite coming from a Division-1 program, he would still have to work to earn a starting role on the team.

“I definitely had to work to get a solid role on the team, but things have worked out well so far,” he said.

Indeed they have.  Coleman has been impressive through the team’s first twelve games.  He currently leads the team in goals with six and has nine more points (13) than any other Blue Jay.  He also has two game-winning goals, his first coming against Cabrini in a 3-1 win where Coleman came off the bench to score two goals in a six minute span late in the second-half.

“Sean is a great teammate and offers the team a strong and fast presence at forward,” Gass said.  “He is a very dangerous one-on-one attacker and has been a very effective free kick-taker for us this year.  The attacking force of Sean and Scott Bukoski has been very difficult for other teams to defend.”

The second game-winner came last Thursday.

“Everyone was miserable, absolutely soaking wet,” he said.  “We were dominating [McDaniel] all game and then the heavens opened up and things got sloppy.  The ball wasn’t moving more than a few feet at a time.”

But in the 100th minute, Coleman brought a decisive end to the game.

The Green Terror set up a wall in front of the goal, and Coleman would have to hook it around them with pinpoint accuracy to give the Jays the win.

“When I saw that I would get the penalty kick, I thought ‘This has nothing to do with the puddles.’  My feet were a little sloppy, but I could use the wet turf to stick the ball into the net.  I just didn’t want to misfire over the goal,” he said.

Coleman’s shot was perfect, bending around the McDaniel wall and past the diving goalie for a 1-0 victory.

“It was a big win for us,” Coleman said.  “Every game is a must-win, but it’s becoming less figurative everyday if we want to reach the goals we have set for ourselves.”

With Coleman scoring at the pace he is, the Jays’ season goals seem well within reach.