Crim: Seeing Hannibal become passionate about soccer makes Romano, others smile with delight

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Roland Romano took a seat near the top of the south section of bleachers at the Veterans Sports Complex among a contingent of Ladue Horton Watkins fans. He was wearing a white cap featuring the name of the youth soccer teams he coached decades ago.

The atmosphere of the Missouri Class 3 state quarterfinal match was something Romano could only have imagined in the mid-1990s when he became involved in soccer because his youngest of five sons, John, and some of his friends wanted to play.

Hannibal was and is a football town, yet fans wearing combinations of red and black were tailgating on the front lawn of Veterans Elementary School, cars and trucks and SUVs ringing both sides of the school’s circle drive and spilling over into adjoining parking lots.

Once game time neared, the home crowd spilled into the complex, the bleachers filled, and other fans sat in lawn chairs or stood along the chain-link fence on the east and northeast sides of the turfed field.

Hannibal High School, with a single-season school record 26 victories to its credit, was unable to extend its season another week. Ladue, with two state runner-up finishes in the past four seasons, proved to be the better team over 80 minutes in posting a 2-0 victory.

Yet, as the scene unfolded, Romano could only smile. Not at the outcome, of course, but because soccer, which wasn’t part of the Hannibal High School sports menu until 1996, has taken a firm hold in America’s Hometown.

“It took a lot of work, but it was worth it,” he said. “There’s a certain pride that you did something that lives on.”

Romano got his start in soccer in 1992 when his son and a few friends decided they wanted to play in the Show-Me State Games in Columbia.

“So, we went down, and they got their heads handed to them,” he remembered. “I said afterwards, ‘What do you want to do?’ They said they would like to come back.

“I had never played soccer, so we put them in the Quinsippi Soccer League in Quincy, put them in the Central Missouri Soccer League. We went down in ’93 with 12 kids and won a silver medal, and a bunch of other kids came out. We had two teams in ’94 — a U14 and a U12 — and they both won the gold medal.

“Right after that there was an article in the paper. We go to the middle school where we would practice, and the parking lot is full. There are kids running around all over the place. I turned to the other guys and I said, ‘Now we’re going for the high school because we have a feeder program.’ ”

Romano was part of a group of parents and soccer boosters who approached the Hannibal School Board about adding soccer. There was an initial resistance because the prevailing opinion was that soccer would take players away from the football program.

“I worked for American Cyanamid, and I had been in New Jersey before moving out here,” Romano said. “The school in the town I lived in was a perennial state football champion. It also had a hockey team and a soccer team, and they were good, too.

“That’s why I didn’t understand the resistance. I said you can have both. It was hard to convince them, but, finally, a lot of people started pushing, the parents and everyone else.”

A year later the school board relented and approved adding soccer for the 1996 fall season.

Winning seasons have become commonplace since. Hannibal finished fourth in the Class 2 state tournament a decade later. The Pirates won Class 3 district championships in 2012, 2013 and again this season. They have dominated the North Central Missouri Conference.

“I remember getting a call from one of the assistant coaches the first time they beat Quincy,” Romano said, acknowledging that was a measuring stick.

Hannibal started eight seniors this season, led by forwards Bodie Rollins (27 goals, 25 assists) and Maddox Tharp (19 goals, 7 assists), and goalkeeper Clayton Neisen (17 shutouts). After a 5-2 start, the Pirates rattled off 21 straight victories before falling to Ladue just short of their goal.

“We had an amazing season, the best year that Hannibal has ever seen,” Rollins said as he and his teammates tried to absorb it all being over. “Twenty-six and three. I mean, that’s unbelievable. Unfortunately, it had to come to an end.

“This is the biggest crowd we’ve ever had out here, and it was great to see. A lot of people know what Hannibal High School soccer is about. We put a name out for ourselves in Missouri. And I’m really proud of these boys because it’s not just a one-person thing; it’s a team effort, all 18 of them.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how Hannibal does the next few years. I’m gonna miss it.”

Veteran Hannibal coach Eric Hill was choking back emotions addressing his team after the loss to Ladue. He was saying goodbye to 10 seniors who all contributed not only this season but during the last four, when the Pirates amassed a combined 82 wins.

“Everyone’s just hurting right now, but I’m sure they’ll look back and realize what a great run they had,” Hill said. “They definitely need to be proud of that for the rest of their lives.

“We’re going to have to fill some big shoes (next season). But we’ve got some young guys coming back with experience that are good players as well, so we’ll try to build off the success. We want to keep it going.”

For Roland Romano and the countless others who have been instrumental in the development of the sport in Hannibal, keeping it going is music to their ears.