Fairfield senior is JournalNews Player of the Year

Troutman is JournalNews’ Player of the Year after recording 22 goals and  8 assists for the Indians.

Submitted/Submitted photo Fairfield senior Kyle Troutman

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By Rick Cassano, Staff Writer Updated 8:20 AM Monday, November 23, 2009

FAIRFIELD — Kyle Troutman’s huge offensive season was surprising, even to the guy who achieved it.

The Fairfield High School senior forward led the Greater Miami Conference in scoring with 22 goals and eight assists in 2009.

Troutman earned spots on the Division I All-Ohio second team and the GMC first unit. He’s the JournalNews boys soccer Player of the Year.

“Individually, I just wanted to be a big impact for the team offensively,” Troutman said. “If somebody would’ve told me before the season I’d score that many goals, I would’ve been stunned. I had no idea this was going to happen.”

Tribe coach Chad Reed said Troutman’s success came from a combination of skill and persistence.

“He’s very, very conditioned and has that strong work-rate mentality,” Reed said. “He produced. He played his role very, very well.”

Reed pointed out that the 5-foot-8, 135-pound Troutman regularly stayed after practice this fall and worked on close-range shooting.

“The farthest I went out was probably around the PK (penalty kick) line,” said Troutman, who credited assistant coach Mikie Masanek for her post-practice aid. “There was no need to go out farther. I was just practicing placement.

“The past couple years, I’ve asked the coaches what I needed to work on, and finishing was always one of the top one or two answers,” he continued. “So I knew if I really wanted to help the team, I needed to work at it.”

Said Reed, “You hear about Tiger Woods taking short putts over and over again just to build that repetition. That’s what Kyle was doing.”

Troutman, a three-year varsity player, had seven goals and three assists as a junior. This year, he was two goals away from Ben Thomas’ single-season school record (24).

Fairfield went 13-3-3 in 2009, finishing third in the GMC and losing to Beavercreek in the district finals.

“Overall, it was a good year for me and the team,” Troutman said. “We were disappointed because we didn’t make it that far in the tournament. Good season, bad ending.”

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