New Trier High School senior-to-be Michael Gallo helped the U17 Chicago Magic capture a US Youth Soccer national title last month. He will serve as a co-captain for the Trevians this fall. Photography by Joel Lerner
Michael Gallo was down and nearly out last month, flat on his back on a soccer pitch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his chest heaving, his eyes closed. He and his U17 Chicago Magic Preacademy teammates had just finished playing Arlington (Virginia) Impact Red in a US Youth Soccer championship final, in triple-digit temperatures.
More than a few other Magic players, drained and battered and no longer able to sweat, hit the turf at about the same time Gallo, a senior-to-be at New Trier High School, had landed on it July 26.
“If people hadn’t watched any part of that game and then only saw us trying to recover on that field after it was over,” Gallo says, “those people would have thought, Oh that team must have lost. Dead. We all felt dead.”
Gallo’s team won that day, 4-1. The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Gallo, a right back who had started the season as a forward on the Highland Park-based club, scored the final goal in a sequence that began with a punch-out from Magic goalkeeper Carlos Pineda, a 2015 Highland Park High School graduate. Gallo dribbled and dribbled and dribbled, stopping, finally, to deliver a cross at the other end of a Mohawk Soccer Complex pitch. He then ran some more and eventually found the ball at his feet again. The co-captain controlled the ball and beat Impact Red’s keeper from about 20 yards out. Gallo raced to a sideline to hug Magic coach Bato Radoncic. Time expired shortly thereafter. Magic booters, spent and melting, all fell down.
“We had 18 players,” Gallo, also a co-captain of New Trier’s Trevians (with senior defender/midfielder Jacob Moskowitz) this fall, says. “All 18 could have started for any team that had qualified for nationals. That gave us an advantage in the heat. That gave us a huge advantage against teams with only 12 players. We were deep and strong.”
The U17 Chicago Magic (2-0-1 in pool play), which also featured Winnetkans Spencer Farina and Brad Nassar and Highland Park resident Elijah Rice, battled in five matches in six days in Oklahoma. It allowed only one goal all week — the Impact Red’s goal, in the first half of the final; the teams had tied 0-0 in pool play on July 22. Gallo tallied the fifth goal of his club’s 5-0 rout of Sunrise Elite 97/98 (Florida) in a pool-play opener on July 21.
“It was fantastic how we came together as a team, how we didn’t play as individuals,” Gallo says. “We trained hard in the month between regionals and nationals. We had guys coming from all over the place to practice with us [in Lincolnshire]. One of my teammates took a train from a south suburb of Chicago. Guys made some serious commitments throughout the summer.”
Any story about Michael Gallo, resident of Winnetka, has to zero in on his speed. He uses it in soccer. He uses it as a courtesy runner for New Trier’s varsity baseball team. He displays it every Fourth of July, when the Village of Winnetka holds its Races on the Green. Gallo dashed 75 yards against boys in the 13-18 age group last month. Gallo won. Gallo won his first Fourth of July race when he was three years old, overwhelming tots from start to finish in a 30-yard sprint. Most of the tots tottered; li’l Gallo galloped.
“He’s not just fast; Michael always runs hard, always plays hard, every minute he plays,” Gallo’s younger brother, NTHS junior-to-be Matt Gallo (a varsity soccer forward last fall), says. “His work ethic on the soccer field … it’s eye-catching.
“He probably batted only four times for the baseball team last spring,” the brother adds. “People probably thought he was upset about his baseball role, about being asked to only run. But he loved that role, loved running around the base paths for the team. He never complained about it.”
The Gallo brothers combined for 12 goals and six assists for a Class 3A sectional championship soccer team (21-4-2) last fall, the elder finishing with eight goals and four assists. Matt’s first goal of his varsity career came off an assist from Michael. Matt connected with Michael to notch the first assist of his varsity career. Michael Gallo netted two goals in a match twice. In one of the matches he also dished two assists. The final score in that one, a playoff contest, “The Michael Gallo Match”: 4-0.
“He’s got great energy,” Trevians soccer coach Wes Molyneaux says of Michael Gallo. “He certainly loves the game, and you’re probably not going to find a more competitive player than Michael. He goes so hard, as hard as he can, offensively and defensively. He puts pressure on backs, creates turnovers. Smart … he’s a smart player. He loves soccer, loves to win, loves everything about high school soccer.
“You give Michael a lot of responsibilities, as a player and as a leader,” he adds, “and he’ll come through for the team.”
Chicago Magic coaches, concerned about the Magic falling behind early in matches, shifted Gallo from forward to right back in between regional matches in June. Gallo wasn’t exactly thrilled with the move initially. But it grew on him, and the Magic raced to leads, quite comfortable leads. Coach Radoncic’s side needed only the first 27 minutes of the first half to tally five goals against Sunrise Elite 97/98 at nationals.
Trevians assistant soccer coach Matt Ravenscraft got wind of Gallo’s new slot and started thinking. Thinking led to wondering. The coach contacted the new defender last month.
“He asked me if I’d be open to playing defense [this fall],” Gallo says. “I then decided to have a little fun with him. I told him, ‘How am I going to break the school record for goals in a season if you want me to play defense?’ I was joking. I’m willing to play anywhere. What I’m realizing is how much playing two positions could pay off. It might help me [during the college recruitment process]. I’m having a blast playing soccer, playing anywhere on the field. I’m always looking to play in pickup games anytime I can this summer. Soccer … it’s my main focus.”
Jack Cornelo played varsity soccer at New Trier in 2013. One of his biggest fans back then was a sophomore, a Races on the Green legend. Michael Gallo, rookie varsity member, paid attention to the older players. He learned from the older players. Cornelo, now a sophomore center-midfielder at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, was an attacking midfielder in ’13. He had eye-catching speed, 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash. The fast senior and the fast sophomore became fast friends. The fast senior also became a mentor.
“He guided me, gave me advice,” Gallo says. “We still text each other all the time. The thing he told me that I’ll never forget was, ‘Make the most of your high school soccer career, because it’ll be over before you know it.’
“We’re going to surprise people this year,” he adds. “We lost 16 seniors [to graduation], and you know people will think, That’s too many. We’ll be scrappier than we were last year. Our team will be full of athletes who are very good soccer players. We’ll find ways to win.”
Gallo will be one of the captains for the New Trier High School boys soccer team this fall. Photography by Joel Lerner