You can call him Captain Crusader.
Williston Park native Dane Kenny has been named co-captain of the College of the Holy Cross men’s soccer team, sharing the honor with Monty Sanders.
“Obviously it’s a great honor being a captain,” Kenny said. “I’ve been captain for teams before, but at college it’s a bit different. It’s a higher level of responsibility, a higher level of soccer.”
The senior central defender has been a captain throughout his career, from the time he competed for the Albertson Soccer Club to St. Anthony’s High School where he helped guide the Friars to the 2008 CHSAA state championship.
“Coaches say it’s my personality. I like to consider myself a leader,” Kenny said. “I’m very competitive, especially in soccer, and I guess coaches see that in me. I hate to fail and I hate to lose. I’m more of a team player than anything.”
Holy Cross coach Marco Koolman, who is beginning his second year with the Crusaders, said he polled his team with a questionnaire and asked them to choose a captain. Kenny and Sanders received the majority of the votes.
“Dane, on and off the field, is very much a leader,” Koolman said. “He’s got a lot of personality, a lot of character and he’s great when it comes to dealing with his teammates. He’s very level-headed and very mature in everything he does.”
On the field, Kenny, who started 17 of the 21 career games he’s played at Holy Cross, leads more by example.
“He big at 6-foot-4 and he’s a strong, strong center back,” Koolman said. “He’s a good passer of the ball, he reads the game well and he’s a good organizer.”
Koolman, who said he first saw Kenny play with Albertson when he was an assistant coach at Boston College, was very matter-of-fact when he told Kenny of the appointment.
“I was showing around a recruit in the beginning of the spring semester and he introduced me as the captain for next year,” Kenny said. “I looked at him and he just smiled at me. It was pretty cool for me.”
Kenny credits his father Dane, who played soccer at the University of the West Indies, for his soccer upbringing.
“He brought me up into soccer and taught me everything I know, especially carrying yourself off the field,” Kenny said. “That’s a huge thing for me.”
Unfortunately for Kenny, he’s spent more time off the field than on it during his college career.
On the final day of preseason before his freshman year Kenny suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and missed the entire season. He battled his way back onto the field only to pull a hamstring and miss almost his entire sophomore year.
“His character showed that he didn’t want to give up,” Koolman said. “He’s determined, he works hard and he came back on top of his game. His personality and character made him the leader that he is.”
Kenny said it was difficult being off the field, but he said the Holy Cross community helped him bounce back from the two major injuries of his career.
“It was a new environment far from home, it’s real cold in Worcester and the crutches weren’t helping in the hills up there,” Kenny said. “The people at Holy Cross got me through it, the professors and the coaching staff, the players and all the new friends I made.”
Because he missed his freshman year, Kenny is eligible for a medical red-shirt and he said he’s looking into where he might compete as a graduate student because Holy Cross doesn’t have a graduate program. Kenny is looking to get his masters in either accounting or business.
But before he chooses a new school, Kenny has unfinished business at Holy Cross. After playing over the summer for the Long Island Rough Riders, which ironically calls St. Anthony’s home, Kenny is excited about his senior year at Holy Cross.
“I can’t wait,” Kenny said. “Honestly, I think this is going to be our best year and our most successful year, especially now that Coach Koolman is settled in and everyone is buying into his program. I think we’re going to do really well this year.”
