Searcy (LP) As the school year begins to wind down, the soccer season is just beginning. The start of a new season means intensified practices to get back in the groove and working on bettering their techniques. This year the team began practice earlier than usual as stated by Senior, Marcelius Whitney, “This year we started off season a bit earlier than usual, doing more drill work and we have focused more on the tactical part of soccer.”

The team has used different style drills to help improve touches and performance on the field. As always the team hopes to make it to state, which takes everyone giving their best effort to perform their best. Poor attitude is not tolerated as stated by Senior, Fernando Acevedo, “If a player has poor attitude then the captain, Diego Suarez, takes a moment to talk to them one on one.” Poor attitude usually results in less playing time and more running during practice. Not only does this teach the players discipline but also insures that the players with the best attitude play the most. The team tries to form a personal relationship with each other by organizing a place and time to eat and get to know each other better. They also try to influence each other to stay positive even when they mess up. Teamwork is a huge part of soccer because the team has to be able to get the ball to the goal as a unit, no one person can get the ball down the field alone and often call outs are necessary , as stated by Marcelius, “Being vocal is a big part of soccer because it can give your team mates a heads up with what is going on.”

This year the soccer team has a large amount of seniors which means the underclassmen have some slack to pick up on when the seniors leave, as Coach Bronco King states, “The seniors do a good job setting the example for the young guys to follow. Along with just getting their own skills better the upperclass men also pushes the younger guys to improve their game. They know what’s going to be expected of them next year.” One Junior, Alex Suarez, explains how the underclassmen are preparing for the seniors to leave, “The underclassmen are training more and more to build chemistry, strength, and stamina, which is very important so when we lose our seniors, we can fill those gaps.”