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Though soccer is the world’s most popular sport, Americans have never quite taken to it. But soccer remains one of the most popular scholastic sports, particularly in the Hudson Valley, where the five schools in our coverage area have enjoyed a fair amount of success in recent years. Here is a preview of what to look for in 2008 as the fall sports calendar kicks off.
Arlington
Even for a grizzled, 30-year coaching veteran like Gary Montalto, seasons like 2007 don’t come along very often. Last year’s Admirals only gave up six goals all season. Unfortunately, one of those goals came in the sectional semifinals against Horace Greeley, thus prematurely ending an otherwise stellar 18-2 campaign.
“It was disappointing because we almost had a chance to win back-to-back state titles,” said Montalto. “In all my years here, (last year’s team) gave up the fewest amount of goals one of my teams has ever surrendered.”
After missing out on such a golden opportunity, Montalto’s 2008 team faces a host of questions and heavy expectations.
“We only have three returning starters,” he said. “And the reserves we have coming back – plus the new faces – haven’t faced this type of varsity competition on a consistent level. How they’ll handle it, I’m not sure.”
Arlington will open its season tomorrow at home against Valley Central. Montalto doesn’t think the pressure of previous seasons will affect his team, but can’t be sure if this group will buy in to his defense-first philosophy the way previous squads have.
“We’ve been defending league champions for four years now, so there’s always pressure, especially in a tough league like ours,” he said. “And we have some pretty creative offensive players, but it’s hard to say if this team will play with the same kind of passion for defense that last year’s team did.”
Montalto will be relying on an attack that includes junior Cody Farrier, senior Eric Fortier and junior Ryan Patino. Matt Martin, a senior, and Rob Stevens, a junior, will roam the midfield. The defense will be led by seniors Mike Dix and Dan Tempest, along with juniors Chris Van Oss and Mack Keller. Senior Rich Kinnear and junior Mike Lockwood will man the goal.
FDR
Dan Cowan had a very successful first season as the head man of the President’s varsity soccer team. His team finished 16-3 and two of their losses came against Millbrook in the MHAL championship game and in the Section IX semifinal versus Warwick. Now, Cowan has to duplicate that success.
“I think this team is capable of having a lot of success, but we are a lot younger,” said Cowan, whose team opened up its campaign with a 3-0 win at New Paltz on Tuesday. “We need to figure out which new players will work best in our system.”
That system stresses discipline and defense. Cowan tries to get his players to buy into the idea that goal-scoring opportunities will present themselves as long as the team stays committed to the team concept.
“Concentrating on defense seemed to pay off last year,” said Cowan. “There were a bunch of games we went into the half at 0-0 and found a goal to win it in the second half.”
The youth movement at FDR will include six sophomores and a freshman on this year’s team. Cowan also projects as many as six new starters. Among the returning stalwarts are senior forward Jordan Williams (last year’s leading scorer), senior midfielder and captain Dan Scott, sophomore midfielder Pat Noonan and senior defenders Tony Keto, Andrew Carroll and James Croft. Croft, a captain, played midfield last year but agreed to the position switch for the good of the team.
“Our first goal is to win our division so we have an opportunity to compete in the MHAL Tournament,” said Cowan. “We just need to work hard during the first half of the season to try and get everybody on the same page.”
Ketcham
Scott Grimes’ Indians went only 8-10 last year. But the head coach sees help on the horizon.
“Barring injuries, we should improve this year,” said Grimes. “We were very young (in 2007) and we play in a really tough league with Arlington, John Jay and Mahopac.”
Grimes, who has coached the Ketcham varsity team since 2001, predicts the Indians will be an offensive-minded club in 2008.
“Kids like to push the ball up the field,” said Grimes. “We’ll have to see how they play best. But I like my teams to move the ball, not just kick and run.”
Grimes is also a big advocate for a cohesive team approach to the game, as well as fair play.
“I don’t want my kids to worry about the refs or the other team,” he said. “I want them to show good sportsmanship and focus on themselves.”
Ketcham, which opens its season today at Saunders, will feature three key returners in 2008: senior defender Scott Cranmer, and junior midfielders Liam Bova and Gabe Morales.
“We always have a dinner before the season where we talk about our (possible) record and what we think we can do in the league,” said Grimes. “Then we can look back on (those goals) at the end of the year and see how we did.”
Poughkeepsie
Kurt Jesman takes over for Josh Thomas as coach of the Pioneers in 2008. A physical education teacher at Morse Elementary School, Jesman is ready to help Poughkeepsie get back to basics after a difficult 2007 campaign.
“I like hard-working kids who don’t give up,” said Jesman, whose team makes its 2008 debut at Brewster on Sept. 8. “That’s the way I always tried to play. Give 110 percent and leave everything out on the field. I try to instill those values in my players.”
Despite being a defender in his own playing days, Jesman said that this year’s Pioneers should be more of an offensive squad.
“We definitely lost a couple of defenders, as well as our starting goalie,” said Jesman. “We just need to regroup and hopefully we’ll have a solid all-around team.”
Jesman is confident that his squad will get better throughout the course of the year, especially if they work together to iron out the kinks that inevitably come when a new coach has to work with new players.
“I’m new and we have some new kids as well, so I have to make sure I help them learn the skills they need to succeed,” said Jesman. “I want my kids to improve game-by-game. Hopefully we’ll get some victories in the end. No matter what happens though, I don’t want them to ever give up.”
The Pioneers will be led by sophomore goalie Christian Bernabe, junior forwards Armando Vera and Jamie Reyes and senior midfielder Joseph MacElveen.
Spackenkill
Manny Blanco’s Spackenkill Spartans began defending their state title on Tuesday with a 7-1 victory at Millbrook on Tuesday. But despite last year’s success, Blanco isn’t interested in resting on his laurels.
“We lost 16 seniors,” said Blanco. “It’s pretty much a whole new team. We’ll just work hard and see what happens.”
Blanco thinks that after losing so much talent, the 2008 Spartans will be more defensive-minded than last year’s team. But he’s not exactly sure what his team will ultimately look like.
“There is still a lot of meshing these kids need to do,” said Blanco. “The dynamics and personalities are going to be much different.”
Even though they lost a number of players from last year’s title team, there are still some holdovers, who hope to lead Spackenkill to a repeat. Senior forward Anthony Balbo, senior defender Ryan Reynolds, senior midfielder Mario Marotta and junior midfielder Ryan Cox are all back for another run. But Blanco is making sure that his current team doesn’t get bogged down by unrealistic expectations.
“I’m not worried about living up to (last year),” he said. “It’s a completely different group. I don’t believe in setting goals or anything like that. We’re just going to take it one game at a time. The old kids know how hard they have to work and we try not to talk about it too much with the new kids.”
