“We aren’t the same team as last year. But I think we have found our identity as a team this year, and it can take us far,” senior captain and midfielder Connor Williams said.

The boys’ soccer team is working on reclaiming their title of State Champions this spring. They are currently 7-3-2 and is third in the District.

“There’s that expectation to continue the excellence of the program,” senior captain and forward Andrew Solomon said. “Trying to repeat States is a crazy goal, but we have a lot of pressure to get out of District, get to Regionals and maybe even States, not State finals, just to do well.”

Sophomore Marcel Berry, one of the team’s key midfield players, agrees that there is pressure to do well this season. “I think it has been hard trying to keep pace from where we were last year because we did so well and we made it so far.”

“It is very difficult to maintain the same record as last [year]. Being as successful as we were, and winning a state championship, we have a target on our back,” Williams said. “Every team wants to beat the defending State champs but I think that makes us better.”

“Our District is so good, if we can get out of our District I feel like we can do well in Regionals. We won States last year,” Solomon explained. “And the year before that North Stafford won, who is also in our District. It’s a challenge, but it’s great because our team can build and get really, really good in the district. It’s just a struggle to get out.”

Early in the season the team defeated North Stafford, but tied them later in the season. So far the team has lost to teams Mountain View and Massaponax whom they tied earlier, while beating teams Brooke Point and Stafford.

Having lost 12 players last year, trying to uphold the team’s status is a little more challenging. “It’s a big change, we had so much talent lost, but we have that experience from going all the way to states. We need to regroup and get ready this year,” Solomon said.

The team didn’t only lose a lot of players, they lost their head coach and are adjusting to the new ones. Jeff Balnave was an assistant coach last year under Coach Jackson and was promoted to head coach this year, along with new assistant coaches Eric Gama and Zach Tyler.

“Going from assistant coach to head coach is only different in that you have a few more things on your plate each week,” Balnave said. “As a head coach, there are a few more meetings and procedural things that get in the way of that,  but overall, I think Coach Gama, Coach Tyler and I try to keep the same type of practice environment and coaching style that we had in past years under Coach Jackson.”

“Every player has full trust and respect for our coaching staff and we are so blessed to be able to call them our coaches,” Williams said. “Our coaches never lose their cool, when games get down to the wire, they are there to settle us down and help us stay composed.”

With the new coaches and loss of players, the team is working on building on their strengths to get an edge over the other teams.

“Our team has great chemistry this year. No one player or coach is playing for themselves we are all playing for our team and for our school, trying to get better every practice and every game to prep for the postseason,” Williams said.

“One of our strengths as a team is our ability to maintain possession of the ball under pressure.  Lots of high school teams play a “kick and run” style of play and our team is unique in its desire and ability to use short passes to work the ball around the field,” Balnave said. “Even in games that we’ve lost or tied, our team has oftentimes won the “possession battle” with the other team.  That isn’t typical.”

With the strengths also comes the weaknesses or things that could use improving on before competing in the postseason.

“[Our weaknesses are] counter attacks and getting back quickly. We’ll have the ball a lot of the time and they other team will just counter and get a goal,” Solomon said.

“As a coach, you’re never satisfied, so there’s probably a long list of things we can improve upon, but that’s just me being picky,” Balnave said. “Having had to replace the vast majority of our attacking players from last year, we’re always looking for more consistency in our finishing ability.  We can also tighten up our defensive shape – we’ve only had three shutouts in 14 games.”

The boys’ soccer team is finishing up their season and will soon be competing for District champions and if they win, will go to Regionals to try to defend their State Champions title.