(Avoca) AHSTW boy soccer has gone 45-6 over the past three seasons, but the Vikings may have a little re-building to do this season.
Very few holdovers return from coach James Johnson’s substate final team two years ago. “Well it’s going to look a lot different from the last time we took the field. I’ve graduated a class of 14 and a class of 10. There will be some similar names, but a lot of different players and not a lot of real time game experience. We’ve got Raydden Grobe coming back. He would have played the most two years ago among the returners. Good experience on offense. Along with him will be Blake Tuma and Kole Branan.”
Others are waiting in the wings, ready to prove themselves at the varsity level. “A solid group of guys that have worked really hard in the time that we haven’t played, but just don’t have a lot of minutes in Jay Patel, and Collin Shutters.
Of course it’s been a big challenge for teams to continue to stay sharp with last season being cancelled and an off-season that was far from normal. “We’ve done everything we can to try and stay within school regulations and state regulations and still try to get some minutes and touching the ball. We started out, the kids usually do a league in Omaha and Council Bluffs, so we started with one of them and it got paused in the fall. We ended up getting to finish it, but our school hasn’t allowed a lot of open gym time. They don’t want the cross contamination so we’ve absolutely adhered to that rule. We really don’t have a lot of recent contact with each other. It’ll be a crash course once we get going.”
Johnson adds it’ll be an interesting year, but he’s absolutely glad they get the opportunity to play again. They’ll open against Grand View Christian on April 1st.
