Last season, boys varsity soccer finished sixth in their conference, but this year, co-captain and senior Bryce Riffle says that he envisions the team going to the state championship and winning it all.
Bryce says that this year’s team is more determined than last year to win a state championship.
“The main players we lost this year due to graduation are Adrian Araque, Brian McNamara, Colton Demetriou, Sean Burtner, and Alec Wirstrom. Even though we lost these great seniors, we also have a lot of new talent this year,” said co-captain and senior Eric Lohr.
According to co-captain and junior Rhys Jones, this year’s team has better team chemistry and work ethic.
Boy’s practices are four to five times a week. According to Eric, the team focuses on skills such as passes, shooting, and defense in practice, and they enhance these skills with inter-squad scrimmages.
“This year’s preseason training was different due to some coaching changes,” said Eric. “In the past we held conditioning sessions and futsal in the gym.”
Preseason training for this year consisted of three insanity sessions with head coach Bryan Daniels and an hour and a half futsal session with assistant coach Shane Mann.
“This team will definitely have a better record than last year’s,” said Daniels. “They are more mature and hungry to get back to the playoffs.”
Currently, the team’s record is 2-4-1. The next game is April 13 at home at 6 p.m. against Western Branch High School.
“There are 12 seniors who are striving to win a state championship this year, and they are willing to do anything to achieve that,” said Bryce.