Wronski tough player to solve

Huntley's Aimee Wronski is the Northwest Herald Girls Soccer Player of the Year. (Amanda Schwengel – aschwengel@nwherald.com)

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Aimee Wronski will tell you it was a complete team effort, and it was to a large degree. No team finishes 21-4-1 without 11 players contributing.

She’ll also tell you that her teammates made her the player she was. They, of course, dished the assists that led to her 29 goals.

But opponents often could solve Huntley’s 10 other players. Wronski proved to be the one player no team really could contain.

Wronski’s humility might cause someone who didn’t watch her play this year to discredit the numbers. But for those who watched her blow by defenders and create opportunities, the numbers tell only a fraction of the story.

“Whatever she did from her sophomore year to her junior year, it worked,” Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen said. “She was so dangerous. You gave her one inch and she made you pay for it.”

For the dominance she displayed at her position and the leadership she gave the Raiders on the field, Wronski is the Northwest Herald Girls Soccer Player of the Year, as selected by the sports staff with input from local coaches.

Wronski, a junior, follows her sister, Corinne, who was last season’s Player of the Year as a junior. It is the first time sisters have received the honor in back-to-back seasons.

Wronski finished her junior season with 29 goals and 11 assists – a career high – and was named to the All-State and All-Sectional teams by the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association. She was the only player in the area to receive an All-State nod.

Wronski committed to Illinois State University just before the start of the high school season.

“I think I got better at knowing when to shoot, when to pass and what kind of shot I wanted to take, whether to give the ball a boost or fire it in,” Wronski said. “I learned to pick my head up, too, and be more aware of the opportunities around me.”

Scoring never was difficult for Wronski – she has been a mainstay in the Raiders’ offense for three seasons – but the crafty ways she came through this year were impressive.

“She’s extremely dangerous,” said Huntley coach Kris Grabner, “and makes things happen.”

Despite all the accolades, Wronski simply would have liked to help her team make a deeper postseason run. A sectional title has eluded the Raiders for the past three seasons, and they lost to Barrington in the Class 3A Boylan Sectional semifinal this season to end their quest.

The Raiders were hampered by injuries, too, including losing Corinne Wronski to an ACL tear midway through the season.

Corinne Wronski’s injury not only hurt the Raiders’ offensive attack, but ended the sisters’ decade-long run as teammates. Corinne will attend Upper Iowa on a soccer scholarship this fall.

“I’m going to miss her so much and it’s going to be really hard,” Aimee Wronski said. “It’s been so long that we’ve been playing together that I can’t remember playing without her.

“ ... [Despite the injuries,] everyone on our bench was capable of coming in easily and playing at the level we needed. We had everyone step up and, even though we lost, I still feel like we finished on a high note. Losing only made us want to come back next year even stronger.”