Last year, the boys varsity soccer team was led by a horde of seniors and had a successful season, making it to the regional semifinals before losing to Tuscarora High School.  The only problem with having many seniors is the subsequent rebuilding during the next season.

 “We lost 11 seniors last year,” said senior Zack Patrick. Seven of those eleven seniors were midfielders, so the coaching staff will have to make up for the amount of lost players.

 “Even though we’re losing a lot of players, I still think we can be competitive,” said junior Josh McGhee, “It’s not like we lost everybody, we still have solid players from last year.”  The Panthers are returning only five juniors  from last year: Ryan Lesane, Zack Patrick, Alex Woerner, Mason Hyde, and Ray Duran.

 One of the most prominent positions on the field is the goalkeeper, another spot that lost a senior.   Alumnus Ian Waltz was one of the team captains last year and was widely considered one of the best goalies in the district.  It is McGhee’s hope to fill that void.

 “Ian’s shoes are pretty big to fill,” said McGhee, “There’s a lot of expectations to hold down the fort and lead the team the way he did.”

 The style of play will also change significantly.

 “Since we lost a lot of our offense, we’re going to need to change to a more possession based, defensive minded game,” said Patrick.

Because a lot of talent left,  there needed to be an evaluation of new talent at tryouts, but there was the slight problem of tryouts being indoors.  Indoor tryouts limit players in terms of space.  With the loss of space, the evaluation of players was more difficult.

 “It’s really frustrating not knowing how good we are going to be because of the indoor practices,” said McGhee.  The evaluation process consisted of the pacer, which is a test of endurance, a two mile run, juggling, and scrimmaging.

 “It’s tough to figure out who’s the best fit when that’s all we have to deal with, but it’s all we can do really,” said McGhee.

 While there are upperclassmen on the team, the underclassmen have to step up.

 “[Sophomore] Bradley Pierro did really well for us last year,” said Patrick, “He’s really strong and knows what to do with the ball; I think he’ll be even more productive this year since we need him that much more.”

 Although the boys have lost some talent, they fully expect to still compete and make a run for the conference title.

 “We can’t really think about what we lost too much because it doesn’t really matter anymore,” said McGhee, “I think if we can adjust to what we have this year, there isn’t a reason why we can’t be a really good team.”

  Three games to look out for this season are Loudoun Valley at home on April 4, Briar Woods at home on April 25, and Tuscarora at home on May 19 which is also senior night.