An Artist With His Feet, Banda May Have Been Most Talented Scot Athlete Ever

“Poetry in motion.”

That is a common quote used by those who saw Ian Banda play soccer for Wooster in the late 1980s.

But, to get a better sense of what it was like to watch him, imagine the way an NBA All-Star point guard can dribble through opposing defenses. Now picture Banda doing the same thing, but weaving his way down the field with 10 opponents chasing him in vain, as they were unable to get the ball away because it was as if it was attached to his foot with a string.

As a striker for Scot coach Bob Nye, Banda performed in that fashion day-in and day-out, while setting nearly unbreakable school records, racking up award after award, and becoming a Wooster legend.

When all was said and done, the young man who came to Ohio all the way from Malawi, a small nation in southeastern Africa, where he had played for its World Cup Team in front of nearly 100,000 fans, was voted an All-American four times, including first-team status three times. To go along with being consistently recognized among this country’s best, Banda was voted the North Coast Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year all four years and received first-team all-region and all-state honors each fall as well.

However, his most crowing achievements came following his senior season in 1990, when he was named the NCAA Division III Player of the Year by the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America and then drafted into a professional league. The Major Indoor Soccer League’s Cleveland Crunch made him the only Division III selection that year with their fourth-round pick in the draft.

“Ian is the best intercollegiate soccer player in the United States,” Nye said of his international talent at the time.

Banda finished his career with 74 goals, which still ranks as the most all-time in the NCAC, and 29 assists for 177 points, both of which are top marks at the school. Banda’s totals also put him among Division III’s best ever scorers, as he currently is tied for ninth in both career points and goals.

Other Wooster records that he holds include most assists in a game with four during an 8-1 thrashing of Case Western Reserve in 1989, most points in a season (48 in 1988), and most goals in a season (22 in 1988), and he is tied with four others for most assists in a season (9 in 1989).

It’s no coincidence either that during Banda’s time, the Scots enjoyed some of their greatest successes in the program’s history. He led the Scots to a 53-17-7 overall record from 1987-90, which still stands as the school’s greatest record over a four-year period. During that stretch, Wooster won one outright NCAC title and made two appearances in the NCAA Regional Championships.

Currently, Banda, who still remains active in soccer but now from a recreational standpoint, is working part-time at a hospital and working towards his master’s degree in economics at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Personally, Ian has started a family with his wife, Maliwase. They have two children, a son named Kalindivga who will be five in November, and a daughter, Busisiwe, who will turn three this November.