After 2 scrimmages, hope abundant in boys soccer

The AHS boy’s soccer team has started their season off well with two wins in a row.  The first, against South Lakes, was won 2-0, and the most recent game against Madison was won 1-0.  Although these games were only scrimmages, they serve as a preview for the likely success of future games.

The team is well balanced, having strong players both on offense and defense.  The team’s defense was able to prevent any goals from being scored by the opposing teams in either game.

“Our defense is good,” says Varsity soccer captain, junior Adem Gokturk, “they’re real solid.”  At the same time, forwards and mid-fielders were skilled enough to get the ball into the net by keeping it moving forward.

“You could really see the team work and hard work during practice reflecting,” said varsity captain senior Adel Sarras.  “We had team unity,” he goes on.
However, there is still plenty of room for improvement.  With offense the team needs to, “work on scoring and making sure we’re finishing,” says Gokturk.  Defense could also, “be a little more aggressive,” according to Adel Sarras.

To correct this, the team currently practices each weekday for as long as three hours.  This practice consists of some scrimmaging to help with playing skills, but is also largely made up of conditioning to help get the team in better physical shape.

Athletes will run sprint workouts to prepare for the intensive quick running soccer requires.  Other, less conventional exercises such as the leapfrog are also conducted by the team.  In addition to this, in order to strengthen the upper body and core, crunches and pushups are done during practice.

To most of the athletes, this experience is not new.  Six Varsity team members are returning from last year, while the majority of the rest of the team were moved up from JV positions that they held last year.

“Most of the team is new.  A lot of JV guys got a lot better and have been moved up to Varsity,” said sophomore Samuel Tubb.  Samuel played for the JV team as a freshman in the previous year, and like many others, has been moved to a Varsity position this season.

The season consists of a 12 game season against other high school teams across the Patriot District.  On May 12th, the regular season concludes with the Districts game where the teams that will move on to regional level games will be decided.