by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — A new tradition has been born with the awarding of the inaugural Ted Van Horn Award recognizing Pickaway County’s top senior girls soccer player.
And the first name to go on the traveling trophy belongs to Teays Valley’s Faith Kanoski.
“I’m just proud of Faith being able to represent our team and our program, especially in the inaugural year for this award,” Teays Valley coach Jason Herbert said.
“That means a lot,” Kanoski said of being the initial winner. “I’ve been playing soccer for probably 10 years now. I work as hard as I can every single day. It means a lot that it paid off.”
The winner was chosen by the Pickaway County soccer coaches as were the inaugural Brad Morris All-Pickaway County soccer teams.
“I’m just proud of her for all her hard work representing our program. Being the first name on a trophy is always a cool thing,” Herbert said.
“I’m happy to get this started. (Circleville boys coach) Evan Callihan actually came up with the idea and ran it by me early in the summer. Brad Morris was an integral part of working with us over the summer so we’re glad to be able to honor him in some way with this team,” Herbert added.
A defender for the Vikings, Kanoski was named All-Pickaway County, First Team All-MSL and Second Team All-Central District this season.
In addition, she was named the team’s top defender the last two seasons which saw the Vikings record 23 shutouts. Kanoski also was named Academic All-MSL four straight seasons.
After a rough beginning to her high school career, Kanoski wasn’t sure if playing soccer was for her.
“My freshman year, we won about three games. It was not looking good. I didn’t even know if I even wanted to keep playing soccer for the school,” she said. “I stuck it out. My sophomore year, we broke so many records and we just continued it up through my senior year still breaking records. It was a great experience.”
Her freshman season saw a limited schedule as schools were trying to work around COVID-19 restrictions and the Vikings posted a 2-5 record.
As a sophomore, Kanoski helped her team to an 11-3-2 record and fourth in the MSL. As a junior, the team was 13-5, finishing third in the MSL and this year TV was 14-3, placing second in the MSL.
“It being my senior year, it was something to look forward to but it’s sad to leave,” Kanoski said. “I really made a lot of friends and it’s probably just been a second family to me over the years.”
Along with a plaque that Kanoski will be able to keep, a new traveling trophy has been created which will is on display in the main trophy case at Teays Valley High School until next season when it will go to the high school of the next winner.
The award is named in honor of Ted Van Horn. Van Horn was a Vietnam veteran and spent two decades assisting with the high school soccer program at Circleville as well as countless years volunteering with the youth soccer program in Circleville. He passed away in 2012.
