Pre Season

I know that football just got over and basketball is under way but it's already time to start thinking about soccer. Right now there is after school weight training and conditioning going on, check with Captains Tanner Crass, Phil Vorheis, Jared Brisbin, or Brandon Hale to find out dates and times.

The first indoor open gym will be January 7th at 8:30 Pm at the high school.

Starting February 16th at 3:30 we will have a conditioning training camp at Lampson Stadium. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be at Lampson. Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00-4:30 conditioning will be held at the high school.

This is an opportunity for our team to be match fit for our first game and allow us to focus on training during the first two weeks of practice rather than conditioning.

It should be every players goal to start this season at the same fitness level as the end of last season.

4th Place

It's hard to imagine that this time last week we were in 1st place, but that's the way things go in this league. Last night's 1-0 loss to Sunnyside was a real heart breaker. It was probably the best game we'd played all year we just couldn't sneak one in the back of the net. The boy's never gave up though. Hopefully the most important thing we learned last night is how to play with intensity. During the last 24 minutes of the game we played so hard, we played with purpose, intent, and a desire to win that we'd never seen from them before. Hopefully everyone understands that this is how you need to play for 80 minutes every game. If we did this we would score often and nobody could stop us.

Our next game is Saturday against West Valley and it will be the seniors last athletic event for the blue and gold. We appreciate the effort they've put in over the years and we hope that a lot of family and Friends will be in attendance to honor them.

Tough Way To Lose

Shootouts. Everybody hates them nobody loves them. From a coaching standpoint we love our teams chances in a shootout. We have a great keeper who reads the shooter well. We also have about seven or eight guys who are very reliable shooters. The reason we don't like them is because any thing can happen, a keeper can just dive one way and guess right, a shooter can mishit the ball and not go where he wanted.

We played extremely well for 90 minutes and had a wonderful attempt blocked by their goalie. When you look at the way our defense played, and the way we moved the ball around this was definitely one of the best games we've played this year. Some highlights of the game included Brandon Hale making seven saves and earning his fifth shutout of the year. Jared Brisbin also man marked one of the best players in the league, he has now man marked top players three times this year and not only kept them from scoring or assisting any goals but also shut down the teams offensive attacks. Freshmen Josh Mendoza played his first career varsity game. He started and played really well, most importantly he earned his teammates respect.

The game against Sunnyside will be a great test tomorrow. They are playing their best soccer of the season so far and we still have a chance to win the league with a victory over them.

Saturday's Game Time

The game against Eastmont on Saturday will be played at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm with the JV playing the early time as usual. Our next opponent Sunnyside will be playing Kamiakin at 11:00 am so it would be a good idea to come watch this game as both teams are tied for second one game back from us.

We would also like to take a moment and stress the importance of the Eastmont game, we need to win this game and maintain possession of first place so we will be positioned favorably in the playoff seeding.

Now The Good News

Kamiakin and Eastmont played on Saturday. Our reason for rooting against Kamiakin had nothing to do with the crosstown rivalry but with the fact that a Kamaikin loss would put us back in first place. Not only did kamiakin lose but it was the best case scenario, a 0-0 tie that Eastmont won in a shootout. So Eastmont only got two points for the win and Kamiakin got one. So here we are with four games left and we're at the top of the league table, Eastmont, Kamiakin, and Sunnyside are all one game back tied for second place. So the question is are we going to step up and take what's been put in front of us or are we going to squander another chance to win this league?

We've been saying it all year, this next game is huge. We've experienced what it's like to be in this position and win, as well as lose. It feels much better to win and control your own destiny. So hopefully we'll come out and train hard this week and put all of our energy into winning this game.

Practice Note: There will be no practice on Monday the 14th, we will resume on Tuesday and go from 5:00 - 7:00 pm