Young Soccer Squad Keeps Expectations High

Though they will hit the turf with 16 players new to the varsity team, boys’ soccer is hoping to be a contender this winter.

“There’s 10 freshmen, so we’re definitely really young and it’ll take a while to build the vibe and team chemistry,” said senior returning player Kyle O’Connell.

5 starters returned to the team this year and 6 were lost to graduatiobn, according to O’Connell.

Coach Shane Carney stressed the importance of improvement. He said, “It’s hard to have high expectations at the moment, as we lost a lot of players and a lot of talent from last year’s team. Our program always seems to thrive in years when other teams think we’re down though, so we’ll definitely be planning to compete in every game we play.” In 2014 and 2015, the team made it to the North Coast Section (NCS) semifinals before being eliminated.

According to Carney, his team’s strengths include defense and technique. “Our team has a lot of quick, technical players, so we should be pretty strong at possessing the ball. Most of our top returning players are defensive, so I expect that we will have a pretty strong defensive unit as well,” he said.

Carney is cautiously optimistic. “We’re a young, inexperienced team, so it’s important that we try to improve every game and every day at practice. Obviously, as two-time defending DFAL (Diablo Foothill Athletic League) champs, it’d be great to keep that trend going, but it’s going to be tough this year,” he said. “If we focus on improving early in the season, we will hopefully give ourselves a chance to be in a position to contend for the title late in the season.”