Boys Soccer Preview

After losing 13 seniors from last year’s team, the boys varsity soccer team this season has been focusing on consistency and communication while adjusting to the 13 new members of the team with one common goal — winning state. 

According to one of the varsity captains, junior Caden Nicholson, the biggest challenge for the team at the beginning of this year was adapting to the new players on varsity. This year, 13 varsity spots were up for grabs because of the significant loss in players. However, within the season so far, many of the new players have already shown leadership within the team and have adjusted to playing with varsity, said Nicholson.

“There are a lot that have stood out so far,” Nicholson said. “We are all really proud about how they are working and fitting in [with the team] so far.”

According to coach James Kelly, with all the new players there is plenty of room for team and individual growth. However, having so many new players brings challenges. Many of the new players are still figuring out how to play at the varsity level and how to play with their new teammates.

Kelly believes that consistency and communication are the two most important things the soccer team can work on right now.

“Communication is everything in soccer,” Kelly said. “The more they talk the more they can get on the same page. So in practices [if something doesn’t work] it’s like, ‘let’s figure out what it is, let’s communicate with each other.’ They have to learn to get on the same page.”

As one of the captains, Nicholson wants every player to feel comfortable to shout for the ball, congratulate each other on a scoring or push each other during a game. He said communication has also helped the captains speak up and remind other players that they need to take games more seriously or work harder in practice.

However, with the new players, there was an adjustment period for the team. The new varsity members had to get used to the tougher schedule of varsity and learn how to play with a whole new team — they had to get used to each other’s style of playing. Nicholson says that in order to win the state championship, they need to learn how to play as one united team.

According to Senior Hunter Cooper, another thing the team has been working on this season is goal finishing. They frequently work on scoring drills during practice since they’ve missed some scoring opportunities this season.

From Kelly’s perspective, he believes this team especially has to work on their crossing accuracy since this year’s team is shorter on the average compared to other teams in the league and past. The team has been running crossing drills during practice — focusing on kicking the ball to the front or back posts to prevent defenders from heading the ball out of the box.

In addition, Cooper believes scouting reports are another thing that has helped the team prepare for a game. A scouting report is when coaches email each other to get information about an upcoming opponent, such as their strengths and weaknesses.

“If we know [another team’s] weaknesses then we can attack and work on those things,” Cooper said. “[Scouting reports] fill us in on what their weaknesses are and what other teams have seen. And then we’ll use that to our advantage and try to exploit those so we can get an upper hand on them.”

On Tuesday night the team played against Gardner Edgerton and won 5-0. This game marked another step in the journey to the playoffs, but they still have to take everything one step at a time according to Kelly.

In their upcoming game tonight against Mill Valley, both Nicholson and Cooper hope the team will continue to communicate and be on the same page in order to play to their full potential and win the game.

“We’ve been working really hard and showing that we can win state this year,” Cooper said. “I’m really proud of [everyone] because they’ve been working [their] tails off, the seniors want it really bad and so does everyone else.”

Click on this text to see a video on boys soccer.