(Avoca) The AHSTW boys soccer team has some significant losses to graduation.
The Vikings will have to re-load following a 10-5 season. “We definitely have some big shoes to fill anytime you lose the qualify of seniors that we did. Even though there may not have been a lot of them the quality was definitely great. A majority of our scoring left when Raydden Grobe graduated. I think 2nd on the list was Hayden Fischer or he was at least close. So there’s a lot to replace there, but I think it will be more scoring by committee this year instead of relying on one or two guys.”
Coach James Johnson identifies some candidates that can step in and help fill the void. “We may surprise some people, but there’s 5-6 guys that are absolutely capable of putting the ball in the net when they get it on their foot. I look for Brayden Lund and Aiden Martin to be two key seniors that we have coming back. We have Ethan Holtz who has played probably more soccer than anybody else combined on our team. He plays a lot and is really, really good with the ball. I look for him to be picking it up. Another one that has a really high soccer IQ would be Kayden Baxter.”
Coach Johnson comments on the team goals. “Same as always. Play to our ability and not let the other team or the scoreboard dictate that. We obviously want to win more than we lose and I think even though there are going to be new or different faces that haven’t grabbed the headlines in the past, we are still set up pretty good to win us a lot of games.”
Coach Johnson considers Treynor to be the clear front runner among Western Iowa Conference teams. “Treynor is by far the team to beat I think. It’ll be Treynor and Underwood right there at the top. If we can stay in the mix until late in the season both of those games for us are later in the season. That’ll give us time to get our confidence built up and get guys who haven’t seen as much action primed and ready to go. We’ll have those showdowns late in the season. All you can ask is for those games to be meaningful when you get there. I feel like we’ll do a good job of putting ourselves in that position.
They’ll have a scrimmage against Harlan next Friday. The Vikings open the season at Grand View Christian on Thursday, March 30th.
AHSTW coach James Johnson:
