Harry Bates was ready.
Coming off back-to-back appearances in the PIAA Class 3A championship match, a lot was set to change for Springfield Township (Montco) boys’ soccer this fall. Several key pieces of the Spartans’ great run were graduating and due to their success, they were being pushed up a level into Class 4A where they’d be the smallest fish in a very big pond.
Bates was ready and he certainly responded. The junior forward headlines the Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery News Boys Soccer 2024 All-Area Team as Athlete of the Year.
“I’ve been very lucky to be part of Springfield soccer these last three years,” Bates said. “We’ve had some great years, my teammates have been my best friends and the coaches are some of my favorites that I’ve had. Even the crowds showing up to support us, it’s all been a big part of what I’ve been able to do.”
There was no way that any one player was going to replicate the impact Riley Martin had the prior two seasons as the conduit to much of the Spartans’ offensive success on those back-to-back state runs. But playing behind the talented forward, who went on to play at Lafayette, Bates picked up plenty of examples of how to succeed in a more prominent role.
Preparing for the season, Bates knew he’d have a more pronounced role offensively but also as someone his teammates looked up. That was an area he felt Martin really did well in the last two years and where he tried to emulate his former teammate.
“I learned how to be more of a leader,” Bates said. “He was a good role model for me, he taught me how to lead by example but also how to lead from in front. He showed me how to be a better forward, being a little more clinical – I wasn’t going to get as many chances as I did playing alongside a player as good as him, so it taught me to be more clinical when my chance came.”
Mixing those lessons with his own talent, Bates put together one of the best seasons in program history with 22 goals and eight assists. Bates finished with the second-highest single-season goal total by any Spartans player on his way to a first team All-SOL Freedom Division selection.
As he sees it, he was just doing his job on the pitch.
“I definitely think that was my role,” Bates said. “I just wanted to help the team and do as much as I could. I wanted to be a goal-scorer for the team but also whatever the team needed to win, I played a couple different positions throughout the season, if it was a tight game, I’d drop into the midfield.
“Anything I could do, I’d do to help the team win.”
This past season, 50 schools in District 1 competed in the Class 4A classification and out of all of them, Springfield Township was by far the smallest with its 392 enrolled boys per the PIAA’s website. With the PIAA adapting its success factor originally put in place for football and basketball across all sports this season, the Spartans – already a small Class 3A school – found themselves in the deeper waters of Class 4A.
For the players, it was a challenge but they didn’t want to be one that fundamentally changed how they approached the season.
“It was business as normal,” Bates said. “The hand was dealt, there was nothing we could do about it. It made us closer as a team and put a little more of a chip on our shoulder to be able to get farther and show just because we’re a little school, we could beat these bigger schools.”
Soccer, for as much as an individual’s work rate and efforts yield success, is a team game first. Bates is big on that aspect, the junior not only crediting his teammates at Springfield Township but also his teammates on his PA Rush club team like Souderton’s Tannor Wiszneski or Central Bucks South’s Anthony Bice for always challenging him to better himself.
Describing himself as a “classic No. 9” Bates explained without his fellow Spartans, he wouldn’t have done a whole lot this year.
“Most of my work is done in the penalty box,” Bates said. “I rely on service and without their service, I would not be anywhere close to what I did this season.”
Bates saw plenty of attention from opposing teams this fall, the striker noting that defenses often tried to double-team him to limit his chances. It’s not something that happens to him often in club soccer, so Bates used it as an opportunity to grow as a player.
“It gives me a lot of motivation to keep doing the best that I can and show colleges that I’m good enough for them,” Bates said. “I feel like with everything that’s happened in the past couple seasons, winning or losing, it’s been an experience for me to grow from.”
The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media 2024 Boys Soccer All-Area Teams
First Team
F: Mark Mazzoni, La Salle
F: Ryan Noel, Faith Christian
F: Harry Bates, Springfield Township
F: Steve Ruiz, Norristown
M: Anthony Bice, CB South
M: Finn Murray, La Salle
M: Tannor Wiszneski, Souderton
D: Chase Rubincam, Springfield Township
D: Daniel Oliveria, Abington
D: Reilly McLaughlin, Upper Dublin
GK: Pat VanLuvanee, CB South
Second Team
F: Brady Hartman, Abington
F: Kaden Sowell, Springfield Township
F: Chamar Blanchard, Cheltenham
M: Daniel Brun, Souderton
M: Dan Frye, CB East
M: Brendan Welsh, Archbishop Wood
M: Patrick Cole, Lansdale Catholic
D: Liam Kane, Upper Merion
D: JT Quinter, Germantown Academy
GK: Michael Maltin, Wissahickon
Honorable Mention
Abington: Brian O’Neill, Brandon Murataj
Archbishop Carroll: Thomas Malloy
Archbishop Wood: Gavin Zachwieja
Central Bucks East: Koen Reid
Central Bucks South: Tyler Jaskelewicz, Josh Dozier
Central Bucks West: Harrison Brownlow
Cheltenham: Zack Rosser, Ean Justice
Dock Mennonite: Bryaden Kratz, Stellan Derstine
Faith Christian: Jude Clymer, Roman Sigafoos, Spencer Huber
Germantown Academy: Ryan Schacklett
Hatboro-Horsham: Logan Gisondi
La Salle: Thomas Regan, Grant Kiefner
Lansdale Catholic: Nolan Feite
Lower Moreland: Tommy Keaton
Norristown: Ishmael Krumah, Alexis Zurita
North Penn: Demitri Ilvoski
Pennridge: Logan Lamaina
Quakertown: Otani Ekpe
Souderton: Drew Kerns
Springfield Township: Henry Drapkin, Ben Hubley
Upper Dublin: Brady Hillman, Jackson Bryan
Upper Merion: Ben Wintersteen, Luke Wintersteen, Sean Rogers
Upper Moreland: Max Hubbard
William Tennent: Nazairy Kukhniy
Wissahickon: Chanwoo Kim, Jofi Contreras
