DLN ALL-AREA: Chris Donovan’s jaw-dropping season pushed Conestoga to state title

PAOLI >> Chris Donovan became the most celebrated high school soccer player in the state of Pennsylvania this fall.

The lanky senior from Conestoga shattered all kinds of scoring records in 2017, notched the winning goal in each of the last two state title games, and wowed college coaches with an impressive array of skills and abilities. Donovan is now capturing just about every postseason award imaginable — including the Daily Local News Player of the Year honors, as well as All-American recognition.

And he is, in a lot of ways, a reluctant superstar.

“For the most part I like to fly under the radar and not bring too much attention to myself,” Donovan said. “But obviously, with what happened this season, I’ve been getting a lot of attention for all of the goals.

“Somewhere deep down I suppose I’m glad I am getting the recognition, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with all of it.”

Over a magical three-month span, the Pioneers’ striker scored a mind-numbing 56 goals for a ’Stoga squad that won the Central League title, the District 1 crown and the PIAA Class 4A Championship. Nobody else in the county managed to score more than 20.

And as impressive as it is, it still doesn’t tell the whole story.

“It was an unbelievable pleasure to watch Chris play,” said his coach, Dave Zimmerman. “I marveled at some of the things he could do. College coaches would talk about how good his off-the-ball movement was.

“We did a camp before the season, and they couldn’t believe his off the ball movement and said his ability to make runs were at the professional level.”

Keep in mind that the Paoli native wasn’t some kind of a child prodigy. As a skinny 130-pounder, he played on the Conestoga freshman team in 2014. And with an August birthday, Donovan was always among the youngest kids in his class.

“I found it more difficult when I was younger,” he said.

“People don’t realize how young he is,” Zimmerman added. “He didn’t turn 17 until August so he is very young for his class.”

After a growth spurt, however, he made the varsity as a sophomore, and went on to lead the Pioneers in scoring. By then, he had given up playing basketball competitively, and began focusing solely on soccer. Donovan followed it up by leading ’Stoga in scoring as a junior.

But nobody was prepared for what happened in 2017.

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