Inducted 2010. Named to the All-State Soccer Team Both as a Junior and Senior. Class of 1984.
Drew is part of an elite class of soccer players at Quincy Notre Dame. Only Gary Koetters, Greg Reis and Drew’s brother, Mike, were named to the all-state team both as a junior and as a senior.
If you look at the school’s all-time stats, however, you’ll have a difficult time finding Drew’s name. Drew, a 1984 graduate of Notre Dame, doesn’t rank among the top 15 in the school’s leaders for goals or assists, finishing with just 10 goals and 8 assists for his career. However, it was his command of the game as a midfielder that made him memorable. He made two trips to the state tournament. As a sophomore, the Raiders were 20-5-1 and lost to Glenbrook North in the 1981 single-class state tournament quarterfinals. As a senior, he helped the Raiders to a 15-7-1 record and a spot in the single-class state tournament in 1983, where they lost 1-0 to Evanston. The teams he played on during his four-year high school career went 62-26-8.
“I’ll always remember his work rate,” said Al Knepler, Drew’s coach at QND. “It didn’t matter if it was the start of the game or the end of the game, it just didn’t faze him. His vision on the field, well, he was just an excellent passer. It’s hard to explain, but he just had the knack of finding the open player. His mind seemed to be a step ahead. He wasn’t very big, but he sure was tough. He would bust his butt, and he was a helluva competitor. He played the game the way it should be played.”
Drew went on to play collegiately at Northern Illinois University, earning letters in 1984, 1986 and 1987. Drew now is a seminarian in the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and his home parish is Our Lady of Good Counsel in Kansas City.
I was very lucky. I came of age when Quincy College soccer was at its zenith, winning five national championships in a row. Coach Jack Mackenzie conducted summer camps, and both he and Coach Frank Longo led us on tours to Scotland. Few towns in the state, let alone the country, had this kind of opportunity for kids. This is why a small school like QND, with 600 or so students, could compete with and eventually beat schools of 3,000-plus students at the state tournament. And of course, there’s QND coach Al Knepler. Not only was he a good coach, he was a good man. You wanted to play hard and win for him, Thank you to these men and to the Hall of Fame Committee for honoring me.