He's Got the Goal-den Touch
September 28, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Their games were fueled by typical sibling rivalry. To Lee Chatfield, the endings were humorous. To his two little brothers, more like cruel.
Sixth-grader Paul and fifth-grader Aaron regularly would take on their senior brother on a makeshift soccer field in the family’s back yard. They’d play games to 10, the two youngest brothers against a standout on the Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian varsity.
Lee would let them score nine goals before dribbling circles around his siblings. Paul and Aaron would yell at each other to somehow block Lee’s path, but to no avail. Inevitably tears would fall.
“Maybe I was being a baby,” Aaron said. “He would let us get up and then come back and beat us, and he’s laughing while we would just cry.”
But on that backyard soccer field, Aaron Chatfield also learned how to compete. And there’s no question it paid off during one of the most accomplished careers in MHSAA soccer history.
Chatfield scored his 173rd career goal on Sept. 21 against Elk Rapids. He’s pushed that total to 178 heading into this weekend’s games against Fife Lake Forest Area and North Muskegon. A Second Half High 5 recipient this week, Chatfield has 45 goals this season after scoring a career-high 56 in 2011.
“Up until seventh grade, he couldn’t lose a game and not cry,” said Lee, also Northern Michigan Christian’s coach the last three seasons. “It built a little chip on his shoulder.
“But it’s always been God-given (talent). And Aaron has worked tremendously hard to hone the gifts God has given him.”
All in the family
To set the record, Chatfield passed 2009 Dearborn graduate Soony Saad, who went on to lead the NCAA with 19 goals as a freshman at the University of Michigan in 2010 and now plays for Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer.
Chatfield learned about Saad as he was pursuing the record, but admitted he isn’t familiar with most of the others on the MHSAA all-time goals list.
However, there are a few he knows better than anyone – there are five Chatfield brothers total, and three more also are among the most prolific scorers in MHSAA history.
Entering this season, Nathan Chatfield was second on the career goals list with 170, scored from 2001-04. Spencer was tied for 12th with 121 goals from 1998-01. Paul is tied for 19th with 109 goals during a career that ended last fall. Lee was a sweeper, so his game was stopping goals instead of scoring them – but he did a fine job at that as well.
Aaron, being the youngest, tried to pick up certain qualities from each. Nathan, the second-oldest, was “a natural goal-scorer, probably the fastest. He would just outrun people,” and holds the MHSAA record with 272 career points, although Aaron needs only five more to match him.
Oldest brother Spencer “could dribble like no other.” Paul was “built differently than all of us … but he could double scissor you up. He’s very physical.” Lee was “more like me; he was the best defender,” and Aaron played in the back from third through eighth grades.
“I would like to think I’m more of a mix of everybody,” Aaron concluded.
“Almost everything I do, I’ve learned from them. The way that they play, people say all the time that I remind them of my brothers.”
He can play with anyone
The best compliment – and a strong representation of how Chatfield matches up statewide – comes from Petoskey coach Zach Jonker.
The Northmen have made two recent trips to the MHSAA Finals and regularly load up their schedule with top-ranked teams from Divisions 1 and 2 including East Kentwood, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek, Warren DeLaSalle and Bloomfield Hills Lahser. Petoskey also regularly scrimmages Northern Michigan Christian.
“He’s the most dangerous individual we’ve faced all season. When he received the ball against us, we kinda held our breaths,” said Jonker, who also knows the Chatfields well through the club program. “He has a great combination of speed with the ball and power. He has great balance and he’s tough to knock off the ball. And he’s got another gear; he can explode by (defenders).
“We double teamed the guy, and we haven’t had to give any individual we’ve played all season that kind of attention.”
Chatfield joined an Eagles varsity in 2009 that had only three seniors. Not only did he start immediately, but he also was named a co-captain.
Last season’s team became an incredible story, advancing to the Regional Final on a 24-game winning streak before losing for the first and only time of the fall, 2-0 to eventual MHSAA runner-up Muskegon Western Michigan Christian. Chatfield scored in every game but that last one.
He also has cut his teeth playing for his club team, the Petoskey Lakers, and his teams are a combined 24-2-2 during their last three seasons playing in the Michigan State Premier Soccer Program. Chatfield scored 1.9 goals per game last club season, down from 2.5 the season before. There is interest from a number of colleges, and he is looking at options of all sizes, from Division I to NAIA.
Chatfield has logged plenty of miles to see strong competition, and one game as a sixth grader left Lee with the impression that big things were on the way.
“There was one moment when I was standing on the sideline, and he did a spin move and split two defenders with a scissor. At that moment, I thought this kid has got it,” Lee said.
“He’s always been tenacious. He’s a natural-born competitor. He’s anything but a prima donna. He just wants to win.”
PHOTO: Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian's Aaron Chatfield dribbles through defenders during a game earlier this season (Photo courtesy of the Petoskey High School soccer program.)
Ludwig's Dedication to High School Pitch Energizes Clarkston's Title Pursuit
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
September 15, 2022
CLARKSTON – It would be a bit much to say they have been full-scale recruiting pitches for Clarkston senior Richie Ludwig, but let’s just say there have been strong nudges each time the high school soccer season has rolled around.
Before each season, Ludwig has gotten some minor overtures from coaches at various academies trying to lure him to their organizations and away from high school soccer.
And these aren’t some low-key academies, as several are affiliated with Major League Soccer organizations.
“I usually get a text or two and calls from a couple of different coaches,” he said.
The coaches essentially are saying, “Hey, if you happen to change your mind about that high school thing, you know where to reach us.”
Each time, Ludwig has essentially responded saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
You certainly can’t blame the academies for trying.
A wondrously skilled and fast player, Ludwig should be on the short list of Mr. Soccer Award candidates this year, if not the favorite.
Entering Tuesday he had 13 goals and nine assists already this season, and he’ll play next for Michigan State.
But the fact he’s in the midst of his fourth year of high school soccer is news in itself, given his talents.
Besides just loving high school soccer and playing with his friends, there are two other reasons why Ludwig has shunned prominent academies.
One, he plays on a club team, Nationals Soccer Union based out of Shelby Township — where one of the coaches is his dad, Rich — that has traveled the country to tournaments and events.
“Really, I’ve gotten all the scouting and recruitment needed at my club nationals,” Ludwig said.
Second, Clarkston plays in what annually is one of the state’s best leagues, the Oakland Activities Association Red, where nightly there are games against other prominent club standouts, future college players and state-ranked teams.
It’s not like he’s missing out on developmental opportunities in high school.
“What I get out of high school is a good social environment while also getting to compete with a couple of my buddies,” Ludwig said. “Even though it may not be at a level as high as a club team is playing at, I can still push myself to be able to play at the standards I want to play at the next level.”
Ludwig primarily plays as an attacking midfielder or a center forward, and while he is a natural goal scorer, Clarkston head coach Ian Jones said he’s a creator wherever he is on the field.
Even if he is assigned to be in the middle of the field, Ludwig will go wide to create numerous scoring opportunities.
“He almost creates more opportunities by not being involved,” Jones said. “He finds spaces. He creates space for other people, so his understanding of how to create space not just for himself, but other people, is the biggest improvement I’ve seen. He just has a knack of seeing things before they evolve.”
Ludwig said he has worn a Spartans jersey “ever since I came out of the womb.”
“I’ve always wanted to go there,” he added.
Before that though, he hopes to leave high school by making history for Clarkston.
This year marks 15 years since the best team in Clarkston history made a run to its only MHSAA Finals in 2007, where the Wolves lost in the Division 1 championship match to East Kentwood.
Ludwig said he and other players have turned into historians a bit this year, studying up on that team and hoping to go one step farther so they can lay claim to being the best in school history.
“Our coaches have talked to us about some of those things they did,” Ludwig said. “The little things off of the field even. They have just told us the little things we need to pick up on to make that run.”
If a run at a Finals title doesn’t happen, Ludwig won’t have any regrets about sticking with high school for all four years given the memories he’s made and what he’s accomplished.
But if the Wolves do contend, it’ll make turning down those small overtures from academies worth celebrating more than all the goals he has scored combined.
“He’s a pretty loyal boy,” Jones said. "I think he has the ambition to do something in high school that hasn’t been done before.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS Clarkston’s Richie Ludwig (10), an all-state Dream Team selection last season, is a likely contender for the Mr. Soccer Award this fall. (Photos courtesy of Richie Ludwig.)