Wheeling Park senior Ike Aderholt, pictured with his Class AAAA Soccer Player of the Year during last month’s state soccer banquet in Morgantown.

WHEELING — On Nov. 22, during the state soccer banquet in Morgantown, Wheeling Park’s Ike Aderholt was announced as the West Virginia Class AAAA Soccer Player of the Year. It was the culmination not only of Aderholt’s season but his career at Wheeling Park High School, as the senior wrapped up his final high school season with some serious hardware before preparing to play for Grove City College next season.

Though Aderholt was more concerned with how the Patriots’ season ended– that being in the Class AAAA semifinals against Hurricane on Nov. 6– the Wheeling Park standout was still grateful for the honor.

“Yeah, it feels great,” Aderholt said, looking back at last month’s announcement. “Even though we didn’t finish the season the way we hoped originally, it felt really good to get some recognition just because of the work that the team put in this season and how much talent we actually have on the team. It feels really good.”

Aderholt, a midfielder by trade for the Patriots, tallied 11 goals and nine assists while being a controlling force out on the pitch.

“Ike Aderholt is a dynamic midfielder with excellent speed and dribbling abilities,” Wheeling Park head coach Mario Julian said. “Ike controlled our counterattack with quickness and speed. Ike was voted the top player in West Virginia because he out-works, out-hustles every opponent no matter how good they are.

“One of the biggest compliments any player can receive is ‘He’s everywhere, and he’s so strong on the ball.’ Every coach we played against said that same thing all season.”

Looking back, Aderholt saw his ability to make an impact on offense as a big development between his junior and senior seasons.

“I think I really stepped up on the offense this season,” Aderholt said. “We lost a pretty generational player that graduated last year, and so we kind of had some room for some people to step up and start creating more offense, more goals. And I think that helped my game a lot this season. I think I stepped up into the role and that helped me grow as a player and, you know, get some numbers on the stat sheet.”

In addition to playing for the Patriots, Aderholt plays club soccer for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the ECNL during the spring and summer. When it comes to his time at Wheeling Park though, Aderholt valued the time he spent with his teammates and coaches.

“Of course the teammates are definitely the biggest part,” Aderholt said of his experience as a Patriot.

“They’re my best friends outside of soccer and the talent on the team this year was unbelievable. So the training environment was really, really good, at a high level, high quality. That helps everyone a lot, helps the team. It helped me a ton this season to stay focused actually, you know, put in effort every day of practice.

“The coaches were really supportive, great mentors, great coaches. I mean, we were all really close. The relationship with my coaches was really good this season.”

With his high school playing days done, Aderholt reflected on what moment stuck with him the most from his times in the red, white and blue.

“I think my favorite memory, it was from this season,” Aderholt began. “It was actually after we lost in the state tournament. We ended up staying the entire day, like an extra six hours to watch the Wheeling Park girls game that night. And it was just so much fun. It, it honestly shouldn’t have been. ’cause we had lost in the state semis that day and everyone’s morale was pretty low. But, we went to the game and it was cold and it was dark and we were gonna get home at like 1:30 a.m.”

“It was just like, kind of like a last hurrah of the whole team being together. And we had a lot of fun and it was just, it was just a really good memory, because everyone felt closer after we lost that semifinal, which is interesting. It was cool.”

Aderholt was also an All-OVAC first team selection and All-State first team selection. Wheeling Park finished 18-4, and Aderholt was a team captain this past season.