By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Depending on who you ask, Hannah Bormann is a person of few words.

By her own admission, Bormann is timid and reserved, only truly comfortable around her closest friends.

A self-described introvert, the Clear Creek Amana senior isn’t much for striking up a conversation with a stranger or for idle chit-chat with distant acquaintances.

“I’m timid and I get intimidated easily and that affects how much I talk,” Bormann explained.

For Bormann, talking is about getting comfortable.

Family members and close friends see a different side of the normally soft-spoken Bormann.  

“I’m normally the one who will sit there and then when I feel comfortable I’ll talk but if you ask my mom she’d say that I never shut up and I just like to hear my own voice,” Bormann said with a smile. “I feel like you have to get to know me and I have to be comfortable before I open up.”

One place where Bormann has always felt comfortable is inside the lines of a soccer field.

As quiet as she can appear off the field, Bormann is a natural leader on it.

A four-year starter and current captain, Bormann has no trouble speaking her mind between the white lines.

“She doesn’t act shy at all on the field, she is such a good player and everyone just surrounds her as a leader because she has done so much for us,” Clear Creek Amana senior goal keeper Sarah Johnson said. “She does talk a lot out there. She really leads the team in talking and communicating and making sure that everyone knows what is going on. She is just shy with people she doesn’t know.”

Over the past three years her play has spoken louder than any word Bormann has uttered.

A three-time first-team all-state selection Bormann has helped lead a soccer resurgence at Clear Creek Amana.

The Clippers have amassed a 45-11 record the past three seasons, winning at least 14 matches each season and advancing to the regional title game twice.

At the thick of that success, leading by example as well as with her words has been Bormann.

“When I step on the field it’s easier for me to talk because I want to direct others and share knowledge,” Bormann said. “I want to do that because growing up playing soccer girls have always done that for me.”  

Bormann started playing soccer shortly after learning to walk out of necessity while attempting to keep up with her older sisters.

By the time, Bormann got to high school she was a budding star but first had to conquer the nerves that came with her timid personality.

“I remember the first game we were on the bus to Mid-Prairie and my mom text me and I said ‘good luck, have fun play hard, I love you’ and I thought I was going to puke,” Bormann said. “As time went on it got better.”

Bormann had a pair of assists but didn’t score a goal in her first career match.

Since her scoreless debut, Bormann has scored a goal in 45 of her next 55 games and needs four goals to reach 100 for her career.

“She has matured definitely since her freshman year,” Clear Creek Amana coach Matt Harding said. “It’s been interesting to get to work with her for the last four years. This is the second group I have gotten to work with all four years and it’s been really cool to see that process.”

Over the last three years Bormann has become one of the most dangerous scoring threats and top players in the state.

The Drake signee has led Clear Creek Amana in scoring each of the past three seasons, ranking in the top 14 in the state in goals each year.

She has 31 matches with more than one goal and had had a goal or an assist in all but seven career games.

“She has played so much and she has had such great coaching on the club side of things that she just has a really good read of the game,” Harding said. “She can kind of see where she needs to go, where the ball is coming next, where the opponents are looking ahead to or if we are in possession where somebody is looking to make a run.”

Bormann followed up a 30-goal, eight-assist debut season with 38 goals and 18 assists as a sophomore.

Her numbers dipped but Bormann was even better as a junior.

Despite drawing constant attention from defenders, Bormann scored 28 goals and had 11 assists last season.  

A scary thought for opponents, Harding says Bormann is at her best leading into her senior season.

“There are some things that now even in year four that she is doing better,” Harding said. “With Hannah, I wasn’t really that clear on where there was a lot of room for improvement and there are some things that I am seeing out there already from her that I am excited to see in a game.”

An area where Bormann knows she has improved is her leadership.

Once a nervous freshman, Bormann is now the unquestioned leader of one of the top teams in Class 2A.

Three years ago, Bormann was hesitant to speak up, now helping others is one of her favorite aspects of the sport.

“I feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable with helping others and teaching them what others have taught me and use my skills to help them grow and help myself grow,” Bormann said. “I think it’s easy for me to do that because I’m doing what I love to do and I just want others to feel that way about the sport and grow as players and people.

Clear Creek Amana went 14-6, falling to Newton 1-0 in the 2A regional title game last season.

The goal for Bormann and the Clippers this season is a trip to the state tournament.

“That’s the goal,” Bormann said. “We have a lot of returners who have varsity time and we have some incoming freshman who will have an impact right away and Sarah back in the net will definitely help us.”