Ryan aiming to extend
Norwood High turnaround
 | As a sophomore on Norwood High’s girls’ soccer team, Cory Ryan won Herget Division MVP honors in the Bay State Conference. (Tom Herde for The Boston Globe) |
By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / September 10, 2009
As a ball girl for the Norwood High girls’ soccer team, Cory Ryan watched her three older sisters lose a lot of matches over the last decade. Prior to her arrival three years ago, the Mustangs had never won more than six games in a season, or qualified for the tournament, in their history.
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The prospect of playing for a perennial loser made it difficult not to consider playing somewhere else when her mom asked if she wanted to attend private high school; the same offer her three sisters, Shay (class of 2004), Tayla (’06), and Courtney (’07), turned down before her.
“Yeah, I did think about it a little bit, but I kind of was like, ‘Oh we’ll see how it goes; I can always see what happens,’ ’’ said the junior midfielder.
The summer before her freshman year, Cory was so excited about playing with her sister Courtney that she decided to give the Mustangs a chance.
“Before the season started, we would talk about who we could beat and what players were coming back,’’ said Courtney, who missed the previous season with an anterior cruciate ligament tear. “We had an idea who we’d be able to beat.’’
They had no idea they could turn the previous year’s record (4-13-3) completely on its head, going 13-4-3. It took more than Cory’s assisting on all three goals in her debut, a 3-1 victory against Wellesley, for Tayla to believe her father’s postgame dispatches.
“I remember calling my dad and being in shock,’’ said Tayla, a member of the University of New Hampshire track team. “It was crazy.
“It’s awesome. I’m so proud of her and so happy for her. This year I’ll have to try to think of ways to get to the games. She’s so natural and such an awesome player. It’s so impressive.’’
Besides Cory’s 14 goals and 10 assists, the most impressive part of that first season was Norwood’s first-ever postseason victory. Courtney went down with an injury on the last play of regulation but returned in time for Cory’s overtime corner kick.
“I saw it right there towards my head and charged at it and it went in the back of the net,’’ Courtney said of the winning header. “I looked at her and we found each other sprinting. Everyone else ran over. It was something else.’’
That spring Cory did some more sprinting, qualifying for the New England track meet in the 200 meters.
“She has the speed; she has incredible endurance,’’ Norwood coach Jay Dupuis said. “She can run all day. She plays 80 minutes of every game. There’s nobody on the field faster, never anybody more skilled. She’s just a complete player.’’
Cory’s soccer success continued last fall, without her sister by her side. In leading Norwood to the Division 1 South Sectional final, Ryan netted 20 goals and added another 10 assists, earning Herget Division MVP honors in the Bay State Conference.
“Usually upperclassmen [win the award]; I remember thinking that would be the case,’’ she said “I wasn’t really going for it; it kind of surprised me but it was definitely a good surprise.’’
This season Norwood is shooting for its first Herget Division title and South Sectional championship. The trick for Cory will be to outdo last season’s performance while dealing with recruiting. She has already visited Boston College twice and West Virginia and Maryland once.
The decision won’t be hard if she makes it as definitively as she picked her high school. Cory wasn’t shy about telling her club teammates on the South Coast Scorpions that she was following in her sister’s footsteps by playing for the Bay State League’s bottom feeder.
“I was not really embarrassed because they play in the Bay State League, which is one of the toughest in the state,’’ Cory said. “I had faith. I just wanted to do what I could and help improve the program as much as I could.’’
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