Ravenscroft Celebrates 50th Year of Soccer Invitational

From its beginning as a strategic event to attract high-quality opponents for the varsity boys program under then-coach Bill Holleman, the Ravenscroft Soccer Invitational has become a mainstay in regional independent-school athletic competitions. Each year, the field is crowded with elite teams from across the area. As the home team, Ravenscroft stands proud among them, boasting multiple state championships, many conference titles and an impressive roster of alumni who have gone on to collegiate play.

As the invitational hit a major milestone this year — its 50th year — former coaches and players from both the boys and girls soccer programs converged on campus to share in the excitement of the matches. Many were drawn by the chance to reunite with Holleman, who founded the soccer program at Ravenscroft in 1971, and fellow state-championship soccer coach Ed Yohman at a pre-match social and recognition on the field Sept. 6.

“Playing soccer at Ravenscroft was the highlight of my time as a student and athlete here and, more specifically, it was an honor to play for Coach Holleman,” Tommy King ’77 — who contacted many of his former teammates to ensure they would attend the event — said. “It has been 48 years since I wore #4 in the green and gold, yet I have so many vivid memories of the practices, games and locker room speeches.”

Photos depict the hard-fought Sept. 6 match against Cannon School on Sept. 6: at left, Raven Mo Zheng ’25 (#8) moves in for the ball, with teammate Wills McDevitt ’27 (#17) at the ready; at right, Thor Vilsoe ’26 (#3) and Chris Speranza ’25 (#11) are in the thick of the action.

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“It’s always a competitive field”

In the 1970s, soccer was fairly new to the Triangle. This was Tobacco Road, after all, where ACC basketball was king and football wasn’t far behind. Ravenscroft was one of a few high schools in the area offering soccer.

Holleman was a big reason for that. He had played soccer at Campbell when it was a new collegiate sport and came to Ravenscroft from nearby Sanderson High School, where he had agreed to set up a program after an astonishing 100 students signed up to play. He noted that, in the early years, Ravens soccer would have to go outside the Triangle to play a full season of teams each year. His vision for the program included founding the invitational as a way to bring in skilled peer schools to challenge his Ravens.

Under his leadership, Ravenscroft boys soccer won two state titles, in 1977 and 1978, and Holleman would go on to start the Raleigh soccer league youth program — the foundation for the Capital Area Soccer Leagues, one of the largest youth soccer programs in the United States. Over his coaching career, he won almost 600 games and six titles in North Carolina and Georgia. Among other accolades throughout his career, he was inducted into the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2017.

Team coverage in the 1975 Corvus yearbook reflects the intensity of team rivalries during the 1974 season and the impact that winning the Ravenscroft Invitational had on the team’s confidence.

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“Bill is the father of Ravenscroft soccer and the Ravenscroft Soccer Invitational. He is one of the individuals that can be credited with all of the soccer that developed in the Triangle area and the state of North Carolina,” Yohman said of his predecessor, adding with characteristic humility, “I only took the baton and ran with it.”

Under Yohman, the varsity boys won three more state titles, in 1982, 1983 and 1986, and the varsity girls won two, in 1985 and 1986. As it turned out, 1986 was a truly dominant year for the program: the varsity boys also won the invitational that fall.

Current varsity boys soccer coach Dan Ressner ’99 played for the Ravens and treasures his memories of the invitational. “It’s something, as a player or a coach, it’s circled on your calendar. It means something to you every year,” he said.

While Ressner never won the event as a player, he did get to hoist the trophy as a coach in 2021. “It’s hard to win,” he noted. “There are no easy games — it’s always a competitive field, which I think reflects the depth and strength of soccer in the state.”

At left, Ravenscroft’s first state championship in boys soccer came to Holleman and his dedicated student-athletes in 1977; at right, members of Yohman’s 1986 state-championship team are shown celebrating in this photo from the 1987 yearbook.

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“There is not another one like it”

While the event has more of a regional flavor to it these days — given that most independent schools field soccer teams now — for many years the invitational was the premier event on the East Coast, with teams jockeying for the opportunity to participate.

Alumni players remain deeply committed to the program, Ressner noted — so much so that the school holds an annual scrimmage between alumni and current varsity players. The Sept. 6 alumni event was born of his desire to bring players from the program’s 50-plus-year history back to campus.

“I think we have a really good connection between our current players and our younger alumni,” Ressner said. With Holleman and Yohman drawing their program alumni to the event, he said, “I was really excited about this year, to hear and connect with some of the older alumni to see their memories and their feelings, the context from their angles.”

Ressner wasn’t surprised at the turnout. Former players who attended the social and invitational match against Cannon School said they were thrilled at the opportunity to visit with their former coaches and catch up with one another.

At left, Bill Holleman chats with Ann Majors Smith ’80 and Cathy Gupton Jurgensen ’81, both of whom played varsity soccer, at the alumni social; at right, visiting with Bill Holleman’s wife, former teacher and cheerleading coach Kay Holleman (second from right), are Director of Enrollment Management Margaret Mahood Mills ’76, Katherine Wooten Bailey ’75, Carrick Glenn Goldner ’75 and Cindy Poole Roberts ’75.

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“I loved these guys and enjoyed playing alongside them. They were my teammates, but more importantly, they are my friends,” King said. “They were an important piece of my life at Ravenscroft, and I wanted to spend an evening with them and relive the beautiful moments that we shared.”

“I was at the reunion and it was incredible, highlighted by seeing Coach Holleman and many players from back in my time,” Lee Horton ’74 said. The five-time N.C. Soccer Coaches Association Coach of the Year and N.C. Soccer Hall of Fame inductee added that the Ravenscroft invitational inspired his own programming when he coached at Charlotte Latin. “I ran a tournament for girls for a while that was set up the same way as the Ravenscroft tournament, and I know how much work it is. It is amazing that it has gone on this long. There is not another one like it in the state.”

“I was surprised by the attendance at the event — there were many former players from Coach Holleman’s teams as well as many players from my teams and players from recent teams as well,” Yohman said. “I know Coach Holleman and I appreciated these players making the time to attend the event. It is always special to get together and catch up.”

“The right kind of environment”

The group enjoyed special recognition on the soccer field at halftime. Former varsity boys head coaches Alix Charles, who was in attendance, Marlow Campbell, Garth Pollonais and Curt Johnson ’87 — another Ravenscroft N.C. Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and currently Chief Soccer Officer for the North Carolina Courage — were also recognized during halftime.

Yohman and Holleman said they were thrilled to see where their successors have taken the program they both gave so much to.

“I credit the school and the athletic program for continuing the tradition. I do not know for sure, but I expect there are few, if not any, high school soccer tournaments in the nation that have been going on for 50 years,” Yohman said. “This is a special outreach for sure.”

At left, Yohman and current assistant coach Will Byrd ’10 are joined on the Hall of Fame suite’s balcony by Eric Scheier ’10 and his wife, Karyn Miller ’10; at right, former teammates Rusty Willard ’76, Steven Nielson ’76, Larry Takacs ’76, Eddie Brandle ’76 (wearing Holleman’s old faculty ID) and Tommy King ’77 were thrilled to be reunited with Holleman.

“If you build the right kind of environment, people want to be a part of it. I think that’s what you see now,” Holleman said. “[Ravenscroft] has that invitational. They’ve sustained it, they kept the quality at a high level. Coaches are interested in developing their teams and their programs and see it as an opportunity for them to really get some valuable experience.”

He added that he was proud to see how it’s grown and what it has meant to Ravenscroft.

“I was quite surprised when they called me and told me they were celebrating the 50th anniversary. That’s amazing, for something like that to sustain itself for that long period of time,” he said. “We had a blast [at the alumni social] with the kids, seeing how they’d grown and developed and what they were doing now. It was a real pleasure and exciting to be there.”

Soccer alumni and alumni relations staff take the field to honor Ravenscroft’s varsity boys soccer coaches during halftime of the Sept. 6 match.

At top, assistant varsity coach Will Byrd ’10, at left, and head varsity coach Dan Ressner ’99, second from right, are joined on the field by former coaches Alix Charles, Ed Yohman and Bill Holleman during halftime at the Sept. 6 match.