Fenner benefits from training and work ethic

Justin Creech/News & Messenger
Published: May 19, 2008

Chris Fenner has earned many accomplishments in his playing career, but none are more distinguished than what he achieved in March.

Fenner spent a week in Glasgow, Scotland training with the Celtic Football Club of the Scottish Premier League.

During his week tryout, Fenner worked with the team’s reserves and under 19 players, doing drills to work on his technique.

The Osbourn senior said Celtic FC showed interest in him playing for them in the future, but said it is hard for Americans to go to the UK and play. They will, however, keep track of Fenner while he’s in college at Towson.

With this experience, Fenner said his confidence level rose tremendously as he entered the high school season.

“Going to Scotland boosted my confidence because of how high the level of play is over there,” said Fenner. “It made my goals so much higher because I know I can compete at that level. I want to go back.”

Natural talent has played a part in Fenner achieving this level of success, but so has his strong work ethic.

In November of 2007, Fenner began working with Gary Hazelwood of Velocity Sports Performance. Fenner’s routine consists of agility work and sprint drills at the beginning of his workout followed by strength training.

“I can tell it has made a difference,” said Fenner. “My upper body is stronger and I’m more flexible and quicker on the field.”

Though he has excelled as a goalie, Fenner was actually a midfielder when he began playing soccer at age 5.

Fenner played midfield until age 12, when he switched to goalkeeper because of his sister.

“My sister was a goalkeeper and it just caught my eye,” said Fenner. “I just thought it was cool that the goalkeeper is the last line of defense.”

Eagles coach Dave Larson recalls seeing Fenner’s potential five years ago when Fenner was an eighth grader at Metz Middle School.

“I saw he had size, although he didn’t train much then,” said Larson. “It’s hard to gauge a goalkeeper at Metz because they don’t face a lot of shots during games, but I could see then that he was very technically and tactically sound.”

Those attributes were good enough to earn Fenner a spot on the varsity squad as a freshman. His first season with the Eagles didn’t last long, though, as Fenner broke his right wrist the second week of the season diving to make a save.

He was originally put into a cast, but after the cast failed to heal Fenner’s wrist he was forced to undergo surgery. The surgery combined with the rehab period kept Fenner on the sidelines until that summer.

“It was frustrating because I couldn’t play,” said Fenner. “But, I knew I had to rehab it to be able to play again.”

Fenner’s rehab consisted of motion and strength exercises. He was not allowed to play soccer again until he could bend his wrist back 90 degrees.

Fenner became the Eagles’ starting goalkeeper his sophomore year, and was now in a position where he was going to have yell out instructions to his defensemen during games. Being a sophomore meant most of his teammates were older than him.

“Anything like that is a challenge,” said Fenner of his sophomore season. “I was used to it though, because I had played with older players my whole life in travel leagues.”
Larson said Fenner stayed positive that season even though he endured a few growing pains.

“He struggled at times. Then he had some games where he was very strong,” said Larson. “He had a good outlook about it though and he stayed positive. His frame of mind was we knew we were going to need him for three years.”

As his junior season approached, Larson said a change in Fenner’s attitude and work ethic were apparent

“You could see the development had finally come around,” said Larson. “He would leave our practice to go train then go to a travel practice. You could see the determination in his face. He always wants to improve.”

Fenner and his teammates hard work has paid off as they have put themselves in position for a potentially lengthy postseason run.
Osbourn (10-4-1) enters today’s Cedar Run District Tournament quarterfinals as the top seed.

“I think if we keep building and everything keeps clicking no one can beat us,” said Fenner. “Early in the season we were missing people for key games and the way we have bonded off the field has helped us as well.”