ASHVILLE — His strong leg and toughness on the field made him a difficult matchup for opponents and helped Teays Valley’s Maxwell Spencer earn the Mark Anderson Award as Pickaway County’s top senior soccer player.
“He’s been an integral part of the program,” TV coach Shane Harber said. “Just watching him grow from a freshman, to everything he’s put in his sophomore and junior and now his senior year, with the year he had he definitely made it so that other teams had to be ready whenever they played us.”
Spencer turned 28 goals (15 in OCC games) and 10 assists into several post-season honors. He was named the Ohio Capital Conference Player of the Year for the Buckeye Division and was named First Team All-Central District. In addition, he was named First Team All-Mid-State League as a junior and Second Team All-MSL as a sophomore.
“We had a really good season. Going into the OCC, everyone thought we would just get walked all over, but I thought we really showed up,” Spencer said. “I scored a lot of goals, but without Gavin (Waters), Michael (Williams) or Owen (Hoffhines) assisting all those goals, we wouldn’t have won many games or scored those goals without them.
“I really thought that was cool that I got that,” he said of being player of the year. “I didn’t really think I would. Our whole team – winning that shows what we did in the OCC.”
Among his highlights, Spencer scored four times against Canal Winchester this season and had several multiple goal games, as well.
“He was someone the other team always had to be worried about whenever he was on the field,” Harber said. “He scored at really prime times for us.”
Even when he wasn’t scoring, his leadership was helping the Vikings to a 13-5 record and third place in the OCC at 5-2.
“He was definitely a leader out there, made sure we were where we needed to be and was able to find the back of the net often,” Harber said. “We’ve always tried to be senior led so that there is that senior class to look up to and he definitely carried that flag for us this year and gave the kids someone to look at and want to try to be like when they got older.”
Even though soccer has wrapped up, Spencer is still competing in his other fall sport where he’s converted 30 PAT kicks and eight field goals for the football team as they enter the third week of the playoffs. He was named First-Team All-OCC as a kicker in football, along with his soccer recognition.
“It’s been hard at times,” he said of balancing the two sports. “It’s gotten smoother because I had to get used to it. It was a little bit of stress sometimes having one game for football and then two for soccer. Sometimes I’m sore, but I just come up to the occasion.”
Spencer will be kicking in the regional semi-finals for the Vikings this Friday.
As he looks at his plans after high school, Spencer is unsure if he will pursue football or soccer but would like to pursue a business degree.
The award is named for Mark Anderson, a Circleville High School graduate who scored the very first varsity soccer goal in Pickaway County history in 1982. The second year it has been presented; Teays Valley’s Derek Yarnell was the inaugural winner in 2023.
The winner of the Mark Anderson Award and the Brad Morris All-Pickaway County soccer teams were selected by the Pickaway County high school soccer coaches.