Berry has a head for the game, expected to give kick to Glass

Lynchburg United Soccer club director Steve Senna recently called E.C. Glass senior midfielder Hodges Berry “the best he’s ever seen for a high school player at heading the ball,” Hodges’ father and Hilltoppers coach Chip Berry said.
In his 30 years of coaching Glass soccer players, Berry would rank his son second at that skill behind only George Lipscomb, a tremendous sweeper who came up and scored several goals off of corner kicks and other restarts. Lipscomb graduated from Glass in 1987, the same year Hodges’ older brother Weston Berry was born. Coincidentally, he now serves as West’s faculty advisor at Furman (S.C.) University.
“Both of those guys were just incredible scorers in the air,” Chip Berry said, noting Hodges may be better by the time his senior season is through. “He’s just fearless, he’ll just go after it real aggressively. In travel (soccer) and in high school, he’s scored on some unbelievable headers.”
Hodges Berry was the Hilltoppers’ second-leading scorer last year, behind only Trent Sparks, despite missing a three-week stretch late in the season after dislocating his knee cap for the fifth time in his career.
He returned in the last regular-season game against Patrick Henry, a 0-0 draw, before scoring the game-winning goal against Franklin County in the Western Valley District semifinals, the tying goal against PH in the championship game, a 6-2 victory, and the first goal in a Northwest Region quarterfinal win over Stafford. Two of those three scores came off of headers.
“We’re certainly looking for him on restarts,” Chip Berry said. “Probably half of the goals he scored in travel were off of long throws or corner kicks. He’s so dangerous in the air.”
“I love getting up and heading the ball on corners or whatever,” added Hodges, who is only 6-feet, 155 pounds but doesn‘t back down in a crowd in front of the goal. “We have a lot of great servers who can squirt the ball into the box. To jump up and flick it in, see who can jump the highest, that’s always a fun thing.”
Berry’s tendency to attack in the air is not only dangerous to opponents, but to himself, as he dislocated his knee for a sixth time in the Hilltoppers’ first scrimmage three weeks ago.
“Once it happens, it keeps happening because your muscles aren’t as strong,” he said. “I try to build up the quad muscles around it, but it keeps happening with freak accidents and hard collisions.”
He had a knee brace on this time, so the knee cap didn’t stay dislocated.
“It popped out when I was falling down to the ground and it went back in by itself,” Berry said.
The injury first happened about two and a half years ago during an intrasquad scrimmage with his Olympic Development Program team.
“One of my teammates came in and tackled me for the ball,” he said. “We just collided knees and mine just popped out then … and it was bad news from there.”
He stopped playing ODP for the fall and rehabilitated his knee through the winter before playing on Glass’s JV team the following spring.
“Everything was fine (but) the next winter, it popped out again, just by playing in a pick-up game of football,” he said.
This spring, Berry is not alone in his misery. He and the Hilltoppers’ other two captains — seniors Kell Gay, who has the strongest leg on the team, and Nathan Richards, also a distance runner in indoor and outdoor track — missed the season-opener against Harrisonburg, a 2-0 road triumph.
“It was awesome picking up a win without our three captains in the game,” he said. “It shows how deep our bench is.”
Against Harrisonburg, Patrick Hamilton, who plays with the Roanoke Star club team, shifted from right midfield to center, filling in for the injured Berry.
“He scored the game-winning goal, which was awesome,” Hodges said. “He stepped up and showed what he could do.”
But Berry is eager to get back in the game, after spending his spring break relaxing with his parents in Key West, Fla., cruising the streets by bike and running suicides in the sand.
“I go to see Kevin Cope (of Rehabilitation Associates of Central Virginia today) and he’ll tell me how soon I can play again,” he said. “I can’t wait. I’ve been doing all of the exercises (Cope) told me to do.”
“We’re hoping he goes in and gets fitted with a new knee brace (and) it doesn’t happen again,” Chip Berry added.
Though his current brace restricts his movement at times, he wears it willingly to help prevent re-injury.
“After wearing it all of last year and this year, I know it’s best for my knee,” Hodges said. “In games, I’ve got to not think about injuring it because I want to go 100 percent.”
Hodges tries to emulate his older brother, who also dislocated a knee cap once in a practice his junior year, during games.
“West liked to get up and attack it in the air,” Hodges said. “(But) he’d also dribble around on the outside and get a cross into the box. It was fun growing up watching him beat like three guys on the left side and work his magic. His stepover (dribbles) and all of his moves were ridiculous. His feet were so fast. I hope I can follow in his footsteps and do the same thing.”
He also enjoyed playing with Sparks last spring.
“It was fun just working with Trent in the midfield and his creative stuff, building off him on attack and using my own creativity,” Hodges said. “We’ll be able to bring that to the table again with John Adams, an excellent starter who is really a workhorse. It’s just awesome the amount of talent and athleticism we have on this team this year.”
Will Poats, who was called up to the varsity squad for the postseason along with Berry and Gay as freshmen, is especially adept at setting up Berry’s aerial scores, as he did repeatedly during travel league play last summer.