Shane Lachawiec isn’t afraid to go the extra mile.
Or extra thousands of miles.
Lachawiec is a junior at Roman Catholic High School, and he recently returned home from a trip to Mesa, Arizona, where he and his teammates on the PDA Danubia soccer team competed in a national tournament.
That was a far trip, but not quite as far as the one he’s planning for the fall.
This one requires a passport.
“This was a great trip, we weren’t in Phoenix, but it was close and there was a lot of things to do,” said Lachawiec, who lives in Fox Chase. “We had a good time. We won our group, undefeated and the best team in our bracket. We have a few Roman guys, four of us. A few Judge guys on the team. It meant a lot, we were playing some of the best teams in the country.
“It’s fun to travel and go places and play soccer. This was fun. We’re going to London next year, not with club, with Roman. I’m really excited about that, all of us are. I’m not sure what we’ll do, but it should be fun. I’m not sure if we’re playing against people from England or teams from America, but we’ll be playing over there. I’m looking forward to it.”
He’s not just going over as a player. He’s going over as a returning All-Catholic after enjoying a coming-out junior year that saw him not only develop into one of the best midfielders in the Catholic League, but one of the top scorers.
He scored 12 goals during the regular season, added another in the playoffs and for his efforts, he was selected Second-Team All-Catholic. It was a well-earned honor, even more special because it wasn’t one he expected.
“It meant a lot because at the beginning of the season, I worked really hard but didn’t expect anything like this,” Lachawiec said. “I worked for it and I was really happy with the results. It means a lot because of the competition in the Catholic League. My coach called me the night of the meeting. I was just so happy and thankful.”
Lachawiec’s emergence was a huge reason for Roman’s success this year.
And the Cahillites were better than most expected them to be.
The young team went 7-4-1 in the always-competitive Catholic League. The Cahillites qualified for the playoffs and avenged a loss to Conwell-Egan in the first round before losing in overtime to La Salle in the semifinals. Lachawiec scored the lone goal of the game for the Cahillites in the loss to the Explorers, who went on to win the Catholic League championship.
It wasn’t the result Lachawiec and his mates wanted, but one they can certainly build off of heading into next year.
“I didn’t think we’d be in that position, either, but it starts with the coaches, they did everything right,” Lachawiec said. “Everyone showed up to work and worked hard. Once we beat Ryan, that’s when we all realized we could win against good teams because they’re a good team. I’m friends with a few of the Ryan guys, Jack (Stackhouse) is a good friend. It felt good beating them because they’re a great team.
“We played well. We had some tough games. There were a lot of really good teams this year. But we played pretty well.”
The goal is to build a winner for his senior year.
But that starts now.
On top of playing for his club team, Lachawiec works out with his teammates during the winter and then plays with them in a summer league.
He also works hard in other sports.
During the spring, just as he is in soccer, Lachawiec is a midfielder on the Cahillites lacrosse team. He’s fairly new to the sport, but he’s having fun.
“I needed something to do before the spring season,” he said. “It was either that or baseball, I decided to play lacrosse. I like it, our team isn’t great, nobody plays lacrosse, we just go out and have fun. It’s great, it gets you in shape, it’s a lot of running.
“In the winter, I don’t play sports. I play (CYO) basketball. We have a good team, we’re 1-1 but we had a good season last year. We have some good players, we just go out and have fun.”
When he’s not playing sports, he’s usually hanging with his brothers.
Like him, his older brother Nick was a soccer star. He played at Roman and is now at Rosemont. His brother Sam is a freshman who also plays soccer at Roman.
“We’re really close, we’re together a lot,” Lachawiec said. “Not my older brother as much but my younger brother I see every day. But we’re all close. We talk soccer and just like hanging out.”
Now he just hopes to win a championship with his brother before he graduates.
“Roman was the best decision ever, I love it,” he said. “I love that it’s in the city. There are a bunch of guys from (Fox Chase) that go there. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
“We can be good next year. I think we can win. We have a lot of work we have to do, but we should be good. If we work, we’ll be good.”
