LEWISTON — Not many players have ended their high school career the way that Abdi Shariff did.

The Lewiston senior celebrated his team’s first state championship in his last game with the Blue Devils. Then a week later, playing his last high school game in the Senior Bowl, he put on a show, scoring four goals, including three in a span of seven minutes, against the best senior talent in the state.

Shariff has always dreamed of bringing such success to the Lewiston boys’ soccer program. He just didn’t know the impact it would have, for him and the community.

“It’s a great feeling,” Shariff said. “It’s amazing. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting all this after winning a state championship. It shows how close the community is and how everyone supports each other. I wasn’t expecting this much media and this much attention. It’s an amazing feeling right now. We’re still celebrating.”

Shariff is trying to focus on indoor track while playing with Seacoast Maine, but the enjoyment of the milestone state championship win has not let up. Shariff has been busy celebrating with the team at various events while doing numerous interviews.

It is quite a finish for a player that arrived in Lewiston in 2007 after fleeing Africa. His family fled civil war in Somalia and settled in Kenya before moving to Kentucky in 2005. They relocated to Lewiston two years later. It didn’t take long for Shariff to think about his future with the Lewiston soccer program.

“As a young guy, I always used to come watch the high school games,” Shariff said. “I always told myself that I’d play on the varsity team someday. Every year in the playoffs, to watch them come short, it used to break my heart. It just motivated me even more coming into high school to complete the job.”

Though Shariff experienced some of that disappointment with the team, including a loss in the state game as a junior, he and his teammates delivered this year. Shariff was not only the leading scorer but also a player the rest of the squad respected and followed.

“What’s different from the other teams is that these seniors grew up together,” Shariff said. “We started playing together as young kids. We had true leaders from the beginning. We knew who on the team was the leader and who could follow. We just never had problems together. That made us a better team. We had one goal and we just completed it together.”

Shariff finished his career as the all-time leading scorer at Lewiston. He had 22 goals and 12 assists during the regular season this fall and added four goals and two assists in the playoffs. His career totals are 68 goals and 32 assists, with nine goals and four assists in the postseason. He holds Lewiston records for career goals and goals in a season (24). He’s been a KVAC all-star two years in a row and was the player of the year this fall. He’s also been named to the all-region team the last two seasons.

“I hadn’t been counting the goals,” Shariff said. “I just go out there and play. After Coach (Mike McGraw) told me at the end of the season, I was so happy. I had a great career.”

He’s always been as modest as any player you’d meet. He’s also been driven more than most. Since his days of watching the Blue Devils as a young kid making a new life in Lewiston, he dreamed big. Then he became a driving force behind the Lewiston program. Now he’s the kind of player every young player in the community hopes to be.

“Coming into high school, I knew what I had to do,” Shariff said. “McGraw always wants players that give him 100 percent all the time. I had my own set of goals, and I came out and played a great four years. It’s a great feeling to end it this way. It’s a perfect story and a perfect ending.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

All-Region Teams

They drove, ran, kicked, passed, shot and scored. And they did it better than anyone else.

Meet the Fall 2015 Sun Journal All Region Teams, led by the seven athletes of the year in their respective sports.

2015 Sun Journal All-Region Boys’ Soccer Team