Boys' Soccer Player of the Year: Burlingame's Gabe Hyman

Starring as a target forward, Hyman finished just shy of scoring 20 goals and added more than 10 assists as the Panthers captured the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship with a 10-1-3 record. They advanced to the finals of the Central Coast Section Open Division and into the semifinals of the inaugural Northern California playoffs, where the Panthers were placed in the Open Division as well. They finished with an overall record of 15-5-4.

“His positioning was excellent all year. He was always in the right spot,” said Burlingame head coach Anthony Dimech. “His movement off the ball was great.”

Hyman, a Burlingame native who spent his first two high school years playing soccer in Amsterdam as his family moved to The Netherlands for his father’s job, played as a center back. For most of the rest of his soccer career, which started at 6 years old, he played in the midfield.

“Most of my life I played midfield. … Last year I played more attacking midfield (for Burlingame),” Hyman said. “(This year Dimech) wanted me to be that focal point up top.”

A target forward is a special breed in the soccer world. Usually they’re stationed all alone with the opposition’s back line of defense, or pressuring the goal with their head on free and corner kicks. The position requires an unyielding work ethic to chase down long passes sent either through or over the top of the defense. There is the constant shifting laterally as he follows the play in the midfield. A target forward has to be mentally tough to avoid getting frustrated because of a lack of opportunities and resist the need to drop further back into the midfield to try getting touches on the ball.

Hyman, of course, also had all the requisite soccer skills: speed, athleticism, physicalness and an ability to finish when given the opportunity.

And this is where the skills at the other positions factor in. As a central defender, he had to use many of the same skills as being a forward, mostly speed and being physical. Hyman said playing as a defender and transitioning to an offensive player gives him insight in what a defender might be thinking as he tries to contain Hyman.

As a midfielder, he was trained to be like a point guard on the soccer pitch, be a distributor and make the offense go.

“I think just having that drive to move up (the field) is really important,” Hyman said. “No matter what position you play.”

It was obvious to Dimech that Hyman knew the game, what was expected of him and that he would be the Panthers’ workhorse. So Dimech, the first-year coach and Burlingame alum, worked more on Hyman’s mental game.

“I was just trying to make him use his mind more. When to press and not to press, not to go (all out) the whole time,” Dimech said. “In talking with him early in the season, I told him we have a couple talented midfielders behind him.”

Hyman has spent enough time in the midfield to know that behind every successful striker is a midfield that controls the middle third of the field and sets up the big numbers for the goal scorer. This season, Burlingame’s two main midfield cogs were Marcus Grundmann and Kai Galia, who both picked up more than 10 assists each this season — with many of them going to Hyman.

“Half the battle goes on in the midfield before I get the ball,” Hyman said. “We (Galia, Grundmann and Hyman) relied on each other.”

Added Dimech: “All three of them had over 10 goals and all had over 10 assists. They combined well together. [Hyman’s] presence on the field allowed a little more space for those guys as well.”

Hyman was such a force he drew the attention of every team Burlingame played as many went to a double-team on him. But all Hyman needed was a step ahead the defense and a crease between them and he was strong enough to split double teams.

“He kind of enjoyed it,” Dimech said of the extra defensive attention. “He enjoyed the fact [other teams] thought they needed two guys to stop him.

“And when he beat them it was even sweeter.”

Like most big-time players, Hyman came on when the stakes were highest. In five playoffs games — CCS and Nor Cal combined — Hyman scored four of the Panthers’ nine goals. He scored on a classic breakaway in the Panthers’ 2-0 win over Mitty in the CCS Open Division opener. He then gave Burlingame a 1-0 lead in an eventual 2-1 win over De La Salle in the first round of the Nor Cal tournament and it was his goal in the 72nd minute that tied the game against Montgomery in the Nor Cal semifinals, a game the Panthers would lose 3-2 in overtime.

Hyman’s performance in the playoffs simply highlighted what he had done all year. But in raising his game to another level in the playoffs, he drew the highest praise a player can receive from a coach.

“A big-time player in big-time games,” Dimech said.