Boys soccer seniors face rebuilding year
Last year, NPHS boys’ soccer consisted of 29 players—19 of them being seniors. This year, the program returns with the goal of rebuilding with a fresh squad of newly varsity players and some returning athletes. Keeping consistent with last year, the team still aims to advance through the CIF tournament and win the Marmonte League title. The programs’ seniors hope to keep strong in the face of new challenges.
While this year is not his first on varsity, Perry Baim, senior, hopes that with a new group of players, they can address and improve from last year’s performance. “We have expectations for the team [because] we made it all the way to CIF last year,” Baim said. “When we got out so early, it was a disappointment, especially for the old seniors, because the year before we experienced struggles as well.”
Baim believes that in order to achieve success with a new squad this year, there needs to be strong leadership from players. “Because we lost all our seniors last year, this year’s kind of like a whole new team environment where most of us haven’t played varsity,” Baim said. “So those few players that have played varsity for the past couple of years need to step up and lead the rest of the team that haven’t had the same experience that they have on the varsity level.”
Noah Redland, senior, has played for the NPHS soccer program for four years. While he was initially eager to play his first season on varsity, his excitement was limited by the implications of the ongoing construction of the NPHS stadium for the team. “When we play in the stadium, we get to scrimmage a lot, which builds connection between the team. If we’re not in the stadium, no one really wants to go to practices because it’s so annoying to play on such a bad field,” Redland said. “Team morale is definitely much lower.”
Redland also notes the implications a lack of a field would have for other team events. “Our Senior night’s kind of been a bit [messed up]. We [were] supposed to have it at the last home game of the season, because we won’t [have] a field,” Redland said. “We do have a make-up senior night in early December, [but] it still kind of ruins the whole senior experience.”
For Pedro Costa, senior, soccer is just one of the activities that he partakes in during his final year of high school. “I’ve got DECA club going on and so that’s [going to] happen during the season. There’s gonna be competitions while we’re playing games, [and] I’m also looking to go to Outdoor School,” Costa said. “It’ll be tough to fit everything in my schedule.”
Though there can be difficulties balancing activities, Costa believes keeping himself busy has taught him valuable lessons. “I’ve learned [that I] can stay focused and stay on task [because] I know that time is valuable. Separating [my] day into blocks and just making sure [I] get everything done is definitely very important,” Costa said.
Though the team faces various challenges, the senior players hope to strengthen team morale and connection to achieve success in their final season. “Since tryouts, the team has really come together, especially in the last few days of practices. [There is] a real connection from goalkeeper to strikers,” Baim said.
