Naperville North's Grander leads from the back

Lee Grander expected Naperville North to have another fantastic season.

What he never could have imagined was an opportunity to head home next year.

Grander, who helped the Huskies to an 18-0-1 regular season, had committed to play soccer at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., but its coach, Kelly Findley, has moved on to North Carolina State.

Grander, who was born in North Carolina but moved to Naperville when he was 5 years old, still has some family in North Carolina and will live with family friends and play at North Carolina State next year.

For now, though, his focus is on bringing a trophy back to Naperville North. While he helped the Huskies to a fourth-place finish last year, in their first state appearance since 2002, the Huskies have their eyes on the biggest prize of all — a state title.

Grander is one of the many outstanding players who has helped Naperville North enjoy a tremendous season, and while it's taken the contributions and the special talents of many Huskies to achieve such great success, Grander has risen to become the biggest leader of his team and is the captain of the Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area Soccer Team.

“He truly is me on the field in terms of how he guides the team,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “If I were to drop dead on the sideline, they'd be fine because he knows what we need to do.”

And they've done everything well this season. They settled for a 2-2 tie to Oswego East in their second match of the season on Aug. 27, but after rallying for a 2-1 win over East Aurora in the Class 3A Naperville North sectional semifinals on Tuesday, the Huskies have won 20 straight.

“They're a tough group. We've got a tough group of boys,” Konrad said. “They have something of a thicker skin than most teams probably do. They feel like they can battle back.”

They haven't had to battle back often this season, mainly because of the tireless efforts of their players in back, led by Grander. Of course, it was a collective effort as Max Auden, Zach Fischmann, Matt Vogel and Neil Wiaranowski have all worked together to make the unit greedier than a family that gives out pennies instead of candy on Halloween.

“It's far from just me because we defend as a whole unit,” Grander said. “We have our seven guys back, including our goalie, and we work, and we work and we work to get the balls forward where they are phenomenal up top.”

With Kyle Lindberg, Joe Sullivan and Evan Trytcha at the forwards, the Huskies have plenty of creative talent to put the ball in the net, so Grander and company have minimized the chances of their opponents while giving as many as possible to their teammates up top.

“Those guys have been magical,” Grander said. “We just do our best to get the ball to them and let them do their thing.”

Grander is humble with his personal accomplishments, as well as the team's success, and he's also quick to point out that Naperville North truly is a team, not just a handful of talented players.

“The senior leadership has been huge and it's a very positive group,” he said. “(Goalkeeper Kevin) Anderson is always positive, (Kyle) Lindberg gets yanked and pulled all game, but he's dedicated to winning so badly that he doesn't care. Max Auden and Matt Vogel in back are just awesome players and they always keep their composure.”

The Huskies shut out their opponent in 14 of their 18 regular-season victories. They've surrendered 2 goals in a game just once, in late August, and they ended the regular season with seven consecutive shutouts.

“Lee and Kyle Lindberg are the man-childs on the field, and he gives us advantages both offensively and defensively,” Konrad said. “He wins so many headballs. A non-soccer person wouldn't know what that means, but it's constantly clean in the back. The ball simply doesn't drop in our box back there because he clears everything.”

When he's not cleaning things, he's also developed into quite an offensive threat.

“He easily has over 30 shutouts, but he also can score goals,” Konrad said. “He's dangerous in going forward and really attacks the goal. He has a very strong goal scoring mentality when he's near the box so we've been lucky to have a kid like him.”

A prime example of Grander doing it all occurred during the Class 3A Naperville North sectional semifinal against East Aurora. In the first half Grander used his chest to block a shot when Anderson was off his line in the goal. In the second half Grander headed in a 45-yard free kick from Trychta with only 11:18 left to knot the match at 1-all.

“He just plays so smart and comes up with so many big plays,” Anderson said. “He's a great leader, always talking on the field, and he makes it tough for anyone to break through. I'll come up when I need to, but I rarely have to.”

Clearing his mind of a disappointing finish in the state finals, Grander and the Huskies have been determined this year to try to get back to the state finals and to bring a bigger trophy back to Naperville.

“It's been the drive for us because it's tough to lose when you get to the semifinals and you're so close,” he said. “We've watched the film on Libertyville (3-2 loss in double overtime in the 2010 Class 3A state semifinals) and know we can get right back there. We have the talent and hunger to do it.”

They also realize that it's the final chance for the team's biggest contributors as Anderson, Auden, Lindberg, Trychta and Vogel are seniors like Grander, and it's also the swan song for Konrad, coaching his final season before becoming a full-time athletic director.

“Our coach is a phenomenal person and you can't say enough about his leadership and dedication,” Grander said. “We want to win bad, and so does coach Konrad. It's instilled in his brain. We've got a phenomenal coach and team, and it's like nothing else I've been involved in. I've never been around a group of guys that are so committed.”

Grander's commitment has earned him the Daily Herald All-Area captaincy. The collective effort by the Huskies just might bring home a state title.