By PAUL GOTHAM
Ali Shabani and his teammates ended a title drought that existed for more than a decade.
On Tuesday, the senior garnered All-American honors as announced by the United Soccer Coaches.
“For him to get this is super-special,” said Aquinas head coach Josh Gleason. “He deserves this more than anybody. He’s a really humble kid who goes about his business.”
After starting the season primarily as a defensive center-mid, Shabani moved into the attack for the latter third of the regular season into sectionals and eventually the state tournament run. His presence in the final third made the difference for Aquinas which finished 20-0-2 and won the NYS Class A title.
“He works harder than other people on the field,” Gleason said. “Most importantly, when he loses the ball, he’s always the first one to go get it back. A lot of kids at this level when they lose the ball, they don’t track back as well as they can. He does a really good job of that and out-working other people. In the final 20 minutes of every game, he’s the most impactful player on the field.”
Born in the Congo, Shabani lived in Zimbabwe before he came to the United States with his family while he was in grammar school. They settled in Rochester’s Tenth Ward.
The 2023 Section V Boys’ Soccer Large Schools Player of the Year, Shabani was afive-year starter with the Li’l Irish who played a program-record 6,500-plus minutes. He scored 29 goals and had 61 assists in his career.
“He went above and beyond everything that I’ve ever asked him to do as a student-athlete,” Gleason said.
The state championship was the fourth in program history but first since 2006. Shabani becomes the third player from the Aquinas boys’ program to earn All-American honors joining Keith Manscuk (2003) and Mike Compisi (1988).
Shabani also joins recent Section V All-American selections Myles Palmer (Fairport/2022), Cody Cavuoto (Hilton/2021), Dylan Rice (Greece Athena (2019, 2020) and Sam O’Connor (Brighton/2018).
Shabani and teammate LJ Gleason earned spots on the East Region Team.
Gleason logged nearly 1,800 minutes in goal for the Li’l Irish. The junior keeper registered 11 shutouts on the season.
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Cam Bean (Churchville-Chili), Johnny Bianchi (Hilton) and Kyle Milburn (Spencerport) were also named to the East Region Team.
Bean helped Churchville-Chili to its first sectional title since 1990. Bianchi, the Monroe County Division I Player of the Year, finished with 15 goals and two assists. Milburn, the all-time leading scorer in Spencerport program history, had 15 goals and 13 assists to finish his career with 58 goals, 32 assists and 150 points (all Spencerport program records).
Dillon Bucci (McQuaid Jesuit), Zach Buys (Fairport), Nevin Crane (Wayne) and Sebastian Guerrero (Gates Chili) earned Large School All-State recognition.
Named to Small Schools All-State squad were Josh Baraka (Bishop Kearney), Jack Emo (Hornell), Connor Feehan (Livonia), Holden Kelly (Perry), Matt Lincoln (Naples), Colin Martin (Byron-Bergen/Elba), Jalen McCoy (East Rochester) Henry Sardina (Fillmore), Kyan Tiede (Pavilion/York) and Jariel Ubiles (Mynderse).
Emo, the Section V Boys’ Soccer Small Schools Player of the Year, scored 39 goals and had 11 assists to lead the Red Raiders into the Class B regionals.
All-American selections from Section VI included Amar Culov (East Aurora) and Drew Leardini (Lewiston-Porter). In all, eight All-American selections came from New York State.
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