By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The Rochester Lancers had finished practice on Thursday night and goalkeeper William Banahene was packing up to leave the Doug Miller Sports Dome.
Into his bag went his gloves, his cleats, his tennis racket and maybe a dozen tennis balls.
Say what? Tennis balls? A tennis racket? At a soccer practice?
Actually, it all makes sense. And not because tennis originally was Banahene’s sport.
“I was supposed to be a tennis star,” he said with a smile. His father played on Ghana’s national team, so it seemed only natural that William would be on the court as well.
Except soccer became his passion. And though his collegiate career is over, Banahene is continuing to see where the sport can take him by playing with the Lancers in the NPSL.
He’ll be in goal on Friday night when the Lancers play Syracuse at 7:30 p.m. at Charlie Schiano Sr. Field at Aquinas. The game kicks off a four-game weekend for Lancers soccer. The Lady Lancers play New Jersey at 1 p.m. Saturday and New England at 1 p.m. Sunday, and then the Lancers host Cleveland at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Individual game tickets are $10, with kids 10 and under along with active military personnel admitted free. A $20 weekend pass will be sold at Friday’s game as well.
The men’s team has been rolling. They are 2-0-1 in the past three games, outscoring opponents 6-1 in that stretch in climbing to .500. Banahene has been in goal during the unbeaten streaking, allowing just one goal while making 21 saves.
“He’s got all the tools, we’re just trying to fine-tune the details,” coach Doug Miller said.
Which brings us to the tennis equipment. Banahene, a 2012 graduate of Brighton High School, started using the racket and tennis balls to improve reflexes of the youth goalkeepers that he coaches. Now he’s using it with the Lancers. The goalkeepers are on their knees and the tennis balls are hit chest high from 15 or 20 feet away. It’s a great agility and reflex drill.
“The biggest thing on a shot (in soccer) is that you want to get your hands behind the ball,” Banahene said. “The tennis balls are smaller so you need to be quicker.”
Quickness and agility are two of Banahene’s assets. And at 6-foot, 225 pounds, he’s an imposing figure in goal. Picture outside linebacker in soccer apparel.
Miller was immediately impressed during tryouts this spring.
“You could see his athleticism, his strength, his quick reflexes,” Miller said.
But the coach could also see a trait he didn’t necessarily like. Banahene had a tendency to want to force the action instead of waiting for a play to fully develop.
“We don’t want him thinking he has to go save the day,” Miller said. “He has to give his defender a chance to recover.”
The be-calm, be-patient approach wasn’t really his style; that wasn’t how he played at NCAA Division III Buffalo State.
“In D-III you can do a lot of high-flying stuff,” he said. “You can be aggressive, you can come flying out. It was an adjustment for a while here. But I like it now. There’s less pressure on me.”
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