The Reedy boys soccer team season of 2024-25 is surely an exciting one filled with possibilities. As they are beginning their season, the players and coach are feeling optimistic about their goals and working hard to achieve them.
Everyone on the team has a different story. The inspirations and goals of each individual player is varying but they come together every game to push out a win. The boys soccer team strives to work diligently and energetically starting with tryouts.
“You try out and then if you make the class period, you go and practice all fall,” captain Harrison Nitz said, “and then there’s another tryout near November.”
Each player contributes in different ways which makes tryouts so important to ensuring that the team is the best it can be. Some feel that they contribute through improving the people around them.
“I like to think that I try to get everyone to care for the team the way that we all should,” captain Ansel Rosato said.
Others believe that they contribute through connecting and leading the team through games.
“I think I contribute to the team as a leader and a player that can go and do his job and help everyone around him be on the right page,” Nitz said.
For most, building connections through the team is an innate and integral part of being on the soccer team and being a part of a sports team in general. Players on this team find that this camaraderie has been long built.
“We’ve all just been going to school with each other for a while, so we’re just used to communicating with each other and being friends,” junior varsity player Sebastian Bustamante said.
With this level of dedication to soccer, comes a struggle to balance school, extracurriculars, and so much more on one’s plate. The boys soccer team seems to have found a solid balance that for some has been something that they have held onto for much of their lives.
“Soccer has just always been a part of my life,” varsity player Luke Kokes said. “So I’ve always had to have that balance between sports and school.”
Every player has a different method to managing their schoolwork and soccer.
“It all comes down to time management, so just prioritize your needs on different things,” varsity player Rayhan George said. “So whenever I get my schoolwork, I try to get it done right away.”
This balance is not only cultivated by the individual players, but encouraged through the support of their captains as role models.
“I take responsibility for my actions,” Rosato said. “I take responsibility for the actions of everyone around me. You just have to try to be the best person so others know that what they give, I give back.”
Captains are leading on the field but the coach is behind the curtain curating efficient games.
“Coach Goss helps me get better,” Nitz said. “He helps give me the right instructions and directions that I can understand, and then I have to put it in a way that my teammates can understand so we can execute on the field.”
The community that has been built within the boys soccer team has facilitated a team that has the potential to make history at our school.
“This year we have a chance to win districts for the first time,” Nitz said. “We haven’t done that yet in school history, so I think it’d be pretty exciting if we can go and do something like that.”
