Full of potential

East Aurora's Abraham Kanneh celebrates his goal against St. Charles East with teammate Jorge Atunez in the first half Tuesday in Aurora.
(Mary Beth Nolan/For The Beacon-News)

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Growing up in the West African country of Liberia, East Aurora freshman Abraham Kanneh's development as a soccer player could be likened to a baseball player growing up in the Dominican Republic.

Tales of now-famous baseball players playing in the streets with milk cartons as gloves in the Dominican are similar to Kanneh's stories of playing soccer as a young child.

"I played a lot over there, but it wasn't like I'm playing here now," he said. "Over there, we didn't always have a soccer ball to play with. Sometimes we'd play with an orange, whatever we could find."

Kanneh and his family moved to the United States five years ago, just after a brutal civil war claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. He left a land wrought with poverty and political unrest for the East Side of Aurora.

"I was kind of little when we got here," Kanneh said. "It was different, a lot different. I feel comfortable here now, meeting new people. I feel good."

Prior to entering seventh grade, a friend brought Kanneh to East Aurora's summer soccer camp. He returned again the next two years, refining his raw skills, and has emerged as one of the most explosive players in the area as a freshman.

Kanneh's goal in Tuesday's 1-1 tie against St. Charles East gave him a team-high -- and school freshman record -- 15 goals to go with eight assists for the 10-6-5 Tomcats as they head into the regular-season finale against Neuqua Valley today.

"We've watched him develop," East coach Jason Rollins said. "I saw some potential in him. He was still kind of small as a seventh-grader. All of a sudden he grew and matured, and that just helped him. He already had the skill. He's still young and raw. But he's got the tools. There are things that I can't coach that he comes in with. I try to work with him on the little things that he needs to develop."

Kanneh was on a scoring barrage early in the season, and teams have figured that out. Now defenses are focusing on slowing Kanneh, and it has shown in his production. Prior to Tuesday's goal, he had gone five matches without scoring.

"I think they've seen my name in the paper and now they focus on me because they know that I'm going to score," the soft-spoken Kanneh said. "It had been a while since I've scored. They try to triple-team me a lot."

Despite that and the fact that he has played organized soccer for only about three years, Rollins sees reason to believe Kanneh is just scratching the surface of his talent.

"He's a great athlete, very big, very strong," Rollins said. "He's just all over the field. He works hard up front and he creates opportunities with his size and speed. He knows how to sneak in behind the defense. He has a good knack for the goal."

Kanneh's skills are being developed here. But Rollins believes that despite the fact he was not playing organized soccer in Liberia, the seeds for his love of the sport were definitely planted there.

"He's built some of his soccer skills here, but his passion for it came from there," Rollins said. "He lives and breathes it."

Kanneh isn't playing soccer with an orange anymore, and now he's ready to embark on his first major tournament of his soccer career with regionals starting next week. The Tomcats are the No. 11 seed at the Class 3A Downers Grove South Sectional. They open play against No. 6 seed Benet at Bolingbrook at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

"The playoffs are a whole different thing," Kanneh said. "We're looking to go far in regionals." Boys Soccer