Slowed by illness in '22, Kiski Area grad Faith Andree ready for fresh start with Wagner women's soccer

Faith Andree knew what it was like to come back from an injury.

A few years ago, she suffered a torn ACL and MCL that derailed her soccer season and required nearly six months of rehab. But as grueling and frustrating as it was, at least there was always light at the end of the tunnel, a fixed timetable for her return.

When she began feeling sick during her freshman season at Wagner, however, the Leechburg native was at a loss.

It began in the summer between her graduation from Kiski Area and her arrival at the Staten Island campus. Andree was having bouts of tonsillitis and strep throat, but she was still able to train and be prepared for the rigors of her first college soccer season.

In the Seahawks’ fourth match, Andree got her first action, playing 23 minutes off the bench in a 2-1 loss to Fordham. She got her first collegiate start in the next match, a loss to UMBC. Against Manhattan in the next match, she played her first full 90-minute match in a 1-0 win over the Jaspers.

“Going into the fall … I had prepared a lot over the summer,” Andree said. “I felt very healthy, passed all of my fitness tests, was very good in the preseason. Felt great. All of a sudden, as soon as I got covid, everything with that changed.”

Andree was sent home to recover and returned a week later. She played 16 minutes in a Sept. 8 loss to Army, then discovered she had developed exercise-induced asthma.

From there, it was a seemingly never-ending string of illnesses: tonsillitis, strep throat, bronchitis, sinus infections. After Army, Andree appeared in only two other matches. As a result of her extended absences, coach Phil Casella had moved a senior midfielder into the center back spot for much of the final stages of the season.

“It was extremely frustrating, especially because I had just played my first full 90 (minutes) and had started five games at that point,” she said. “Obviously, I was very excited about that, being a freshman and winning the starting position.

“Then having that taken away by something completely out of my control, it’s very frustrating. … It was also difficult knowing that I was physically able to play but just not being healthy enough to play. It’s different than an ankle or knee injury where you know you’re injured, and you physically can’t do it.”

What followed was doctor visit after doctor visit. Second and third opinions. Finally, it was determined that Andree would have her tonsils removed, but even that wasn’t without its roadblocks.

Scheduling the surgery took a while because there were certain health criteria she had to meet before she was cleared for the procedure. From the end of the Seahawks’ season in mid-October, it took until January to get the surgery.

“It was a difficult process, knowing that there’s something you could do but not being able to do it right away,” Andree said.

After months of struggling with her health, Andree was back to full speed for the Seahawks’ spring season. And, most importantly, she has remained healthy. She is healthy enough, in fact, that the week of June 26, she went with her club team, Pittsburgh Hotspurs, to the U.S. Youth Soccer Elite 64 national finals in Oceanside, Calif.

She has been keeping up with the offseason weight training and conditioning programs Casella set for her and is anticipating a better sophomore season. Casella, too, believes Andree can be much improved in 2023. The seventh-year coach was pleased with her performance despite the small sample size.

“I like the fact that she does a very good job at trying to play out of the back,” he said. “That’s something we try to do. So we’re looking for our defenders to be calm and cool on the ball. And playing it to midfield is something that she has been able to demonstrate a number of times.

“The other side of her game that I like is being a defender and being able to anticipate and step in front of attackers to intercept balls. … I’m looking forward to seeing her doing that more going into her second year.”

Andree said she likes to play a physical game, despite being only 5-foot-4. Some of that fight might serve her well as she heads into her sophomore season.

Wagner slogged through a disappointing 2022, going just 4-12-1 overall and 2-6-1 in the Northeast Conference. The Seahawks graduated a crew of eight seniors who now will be replaced by a group of 10 incoming freshmen. Andree said even though she has experience as a starter, she isn’t taking anything for granted when it comes to her role.

“I know I don’t have the starting position. I’m going to have to fight for that and win it back,” she said. “But I did have a successful spring season, so my confidence is a lot higher than it was my freshman year. But there’s work that needs to be done to earn that position back.”

During the spring, before the arrival of the new crop of freshmen, the returning Seahawks, Andree said, seemed to jell and find a rhythm. Casella tested some new formations and moved a few players around to achieve the right mix. How the freshmen are incorporated into that, Andree said, could go a long way to determining how much Wagner can improve.

Still, she said, the goal remains the same: to qualify for the NEC Tournament and win it.

A healthy season from Andree could provide a push in that direction.

“You just see a mature kid from the fall to the spring,” Casella said. “I think you see a kid who has definitely gotten more confident both on and off the ball and understanding her positioning as a defender. Definitely looking forward to the fall now that she’s going to be a second-year player.”

Added Andree: “I have been putting in a ton of work over the summer in training and working on things myself. I feel more prepared than I did last summer, so, hopefully, I can build on that and have a great sophomore season.”