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Shaver Stronger Than Ever, Ready to Shine With Team USA

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Greenwich resident and Brunswick School senior Tyler Shaver takes to the turf during a recent match for Team USA soccer. (contributed photo)

By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor

Greenwich resident Brunswick School senior Tyler Shaver could have easily seen his lifelong dream slip away in heartbreaking fashion.

A devastating injury during an overseas tournament derailed Shaver and his potential plans for a World Cup run with the USA U-17 Men’s National Team. However, Shaver worked too hard and spent too much time preparing to just give in to his injury.

Working harder and being more focused than ever before, Shaver not only came back healthier and stronger from his posterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament tears, but he also regained his spot on the United States Men’s National Team that is traveling to Dubai and India for the U-17 World Cup in a few short days.

“This is an amazing feeling,” Shaver said. “This has been my goal ever since I joined the national team when I was 14-years-old. The coach there told us that the point of youth national team is to funnel as many players as possible into that U-17 World Cup pool. To be able to go, especially after having my injury that set me back, is amazing. I’m really excited and really thankful for everybody that has helped me along the way, like my coaches and my parents and my teammates.”

So Shaver’s bags are packed and he’s ready to go overseas and represent the United States of America.

Team USA will be in Group A, joining Columbia, Ghana and the host team from India. The United States will see its first competition in the World Cup on Oct. 6 when they battle India at Jawaharial Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. Three days, it’s back to the same arena, but this time against Ghana. America’s last game in the group stage will be on Oct. 12, when they face off against Columbia at Dr. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

“It’s the top 24 teams in the world, so there is going to be some really tough competition,” Shaver said. “We have lived and trained together for the past 18 months, so I think we have done all that we can do to prepare. I’m just excited to see what this team can do.”

Other top countries will be vying for the World Cup championship as well. In Group B is Paraguay, Mali, New Zealand and Turkey, while Iran, Guinea, Germany and Costa Rica round out Group C. Group D has Korea, Niger, Brazil and Spain and Group E will include teams from Honduras, Japan, New Caledonia and France. Rounding out the field will be Iraq, Mexico, Chile and England, as those four teams play in Group F.

After the group stage, America will join the Second Stage and play in the Round of 16 single-elimination tournament, which gets underway on Oct. 16.

The World Cup will conclude on Oct 28 with the championship match played at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata, with the playoff for third place taking place prior to the championship match.

Greenwich’s Tyler Shaver. (contributed photo)

“I will play like a center defense,” Shaver said. “A lot of defenders are very good at defending, but not good at attacking. I think I bring that other dimension of being a really good passer out of the back and bring a sense of calm and composure on the ball.”

In the final month leading up to the tournament, Shaver said that there’s definitely a different feel to the practices.

“They do a very good job measuring our workloads,” Shaver said. “Some practices are very light and others are extremely difficult. We are all very focused on what we are doing because we know that we are not practicing just to get better for a game on the weekend. We are practicing in preparation for the biggest tournament of our lives.”

After working his way through the USA Soccer ranks, playing in the U-14 and U-15 United States Boys’ National Soccer Team, Shaver was gearing up for a run at the U-17 USA Men’s National Team.

Then disaster nearly struck. Playing late last summer in Europe, Shaver slid to block a shot. However, his foot got caught in the grass and his weight came down on top of his foot. He heard two popping sounds and went straight down to the turf in agony. That’s when he realized this was going to be serious.

When Shaver heard the popping, it was his posterior cruciate ligament, a bigger ligament that’s behind the anterior cruciate ligament, as well as his medial collateral ligament, tearing.

“I remember the trainers taking me off and telling me that it would be four to six weeks,” Shaver said. “I flew back home and talked to the surgeon and that’s when he got the gut-wrenching news that recovery would be nine to 12 months. It was pretty devastating, knowing this huge process I was beginning, the hard work I had to put in and knowing I wasn’t going to play soccer for so long. It was depressing.”

Shaver had the successful surgery in late August. The first six months of recovery, he wasn’t running or even thinking about once again kicking a soccer ball. It was all about getting his leg strength back and the stability in his knee.

“I focused on doing everything that I could do every day to make sure that this would never happen again,” Shaver said. “I would wake up at 5 a.m. every morning and work on recovering before school and then do it again after school. I wanted to make sure that I was stronger than ever, so that way I would never be put in that situation again.”

Shaver worked his tail off during rehab because he didn’t want this to be a career-ending injury. He wanted to do whatever it took to get back out there and keep playing the sport that he adores so much.

Consistency was the key.

“There were some days where I woke up and, out of all the things in the world, doing rehab was the last thing on the list,” Shaver said. “I needed to make sure that every morning and every night I would do the things I had to do, making sure I didn’t take any days off that I wasn’t supposed to. I knew I had to make a little progress every day towards my ultimate goal and that I wasn’t sliding backwards.”

And Shaver couldn’t afford sliding backwards. Because this was the U-17 Men’s National Team, a spot wasn’t secured for Shaver when he came back from injury. Before the injury, he was one of the main components on the squad.

“But after the injury, like every good team, someone else takes your role and the team adapts without you,” Shaver said. “When I came back, the team was different, in terms of personnel and style of play. When I came back, I focused on every day getting better and showing the coaches that I was the best one for my spot.”

All the determination and long hours sweating through rehab paid off. The leg was good to go and the only thing left was to get back on the pitch and see how things would hold up during a practice.

“It was really great and I was smiling from the whole practice,” Shaver said. “It was a day that I thought about for so long. That thought got me through a lot of the rehab, knowing that I had a purpose. I was really glad that I didn’t suffer any setbacks and was able to come back as strong as I did.”

Getting to this point, where Shaver is putting on the red, white and blue jersey and representing the country in World Cup action, the Greenwich resident knows how incredible his journey has been.

Whether it was his coaches John Hackworth, Shaun Tsakiris and the entire United States Soccer Federation staff in Bradenton, Fla.; his coaches from the New York City Football Club Patrick Viera, Christian Lattanzio, Javier Perez and Kristian Wilson; coaches Mickey Kydes and Pete Doneit at Beachside Soccer in Westport; or coaches Shahaab Langroudi and Paul Brooks from New York Soccer Club, Shaver couldn’t be more appreciative of all the people that helped him along the way to get to this point in his young career.

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