Kicking To The Top Boys soccer face obstacles with new teams in district

Damo Kouakou | Reporter

After ending the season last winter with 11 wins, four losses, and eight ties, while also tying for District Champions, the boys’ Soccer season ended within the first round of the playoffs. With most of the team returning this year, the team has high hopes for another great season and a long run in the playoffs, their biggest obstacle being the new teams in their district.

“What we’re hoping to achieve this season is winning district,” senior Erick Rios said. “I want to do better [than] last year because It wasn’t a good season at the end, especially for the seniors”

The recent tournament had the players working on their chemistry, strategy, and learning what they are good and bad at. With all 11 players being on the same page their chemistry is the most important to keep them from losing.

“Well, we need to improve [chemistry] just when we’re down by goals and just keep our heads up and keep playing until the end and just communicate with each other,” Rios said. “Because all of those kinds of issues lead to no chemistry with each other which will lead to bad games”

Team chemistry is important in team sports, which coach Jacob Stern is heavily involved with by influencing his captains to keep strengthening the bond between every player and to create a strong support system.

“We come together as a group, a family,” senior Noah Renfro said. “We’re all like brothers. We’re all like friends. We connect well with each other on and off the field. We have each other’s backs, we communicated with each other inside and outside of the film. And we tried to be as open with each other as we could be.”

It is essential for each player to influence each other on and off the field so they will all be on the same page. Rios leads by example and always wants to motivate his teammates. All players, not just captains need to lead by example and reflect with each other.

“I have to keep people motivated at all times and keep them motivated for the whole 90 minutes that we’re playing,” Rios said. “Things like carrying the ball, doing what I do best with the ball, helping my teammates get a go or if it works best I score goals for my team motivates them.”

Having to play for 90 minutes straight, the players need to be on top of their game stamina-wise, since they have to run many miles in a game while dribbling the ball. Stamina will affect performance without practice.

“In practice we do a lot of running conditioning as [to] just be the most conditioned team that we can, getting us ready for a whole 90 minutes,” Renfro said. “Then you know tactics, corners, free kicks, everything and plays that we can do to build up our game mentally.”

With having the rest of the season left, the players want to better themselves and get ready for the playoffs even through good or bad games.

“There’s always more opportunities down the road,” Renfro said. “If something bad happens, something better will happen later. There’s always an upside to everything and even if you don’t see it now, it will definitely show itself in the future.”