High school soccer: Christopher Schaefer elevated to varsity coach from Highland JV

For the past two seasons, Christopher Schaefer has led the Highland boys soccer junior varsity team to significant levels of success. The Hornets hope that will translate into snapping a streak of seven losing seasons at the varsity level after Schaefer was named the ninth coach in program history. He replaced Denny Ciornei, who ran the program the past four seasons, and is known for leading the junior varsity to a 28-1-2 record over the past two seasons. "We went through a pretty large change the last couple of years trying to build a culture with our former coach Denny Ciornei," Schaefer said. "We want to continue the change that has been started. We want to start putting together winning seasons at the varsity level beginning this year. "The biggest change we need to make to start winning again and put Highland soccer back on the map." The Hornets are without a league championship since 2010. They improved from sixth to fifth to fourth the past three seasons in the SL American Conference. Schaefer previously served as Highland Youth Soccer president and coached a group of future Hornets for seven seasons at the youth level. He then became a member of the booster program when his son, Ben, was playing for the high school. Before becoming the junior varsity coach under Ciornei, Schaefer was a high school referee. "Both of my kids were Highland students and my son played four years for Highland soccer," Schaefer said. "It's been a passion of mine to be a part of the game either playing, coaching or refereeing for the last 15-20 years." Schaefer, who also works for Westfield Insurance as a fleet and travel leader, and Highland will need to find a new top scorer after the eight goals and one assist of Niko Verginis graduate. He hopes the junior varsity success will translate. "First and foremost, we need to be the fittest team on the field and we need to play within the format we want to play to put our players in the best position to win," Schaefer said. "That's fundamentally what we want to do: to be the readiest and the most willing to do whatever it takes to make sure we compete at the highest level possible." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.