Winter sports may not start for a few more months, but that doesn’t mean that the athletes haven’t started preparing. Especially not when it comes to the Carlmont boy’s varsity soccer team.
After having lost to Watsonville in the Division I semi-final game in the 2013-2014 season, one might expect the boy’s would come back this year even more motivated to become Central Coast Section (CCS) champions. However, that is not the case for this year’s players.
For one thing, many of last year’s key players graduated, and as a result, this year’s team will consist of almost nobody with starting experience. In addition, many of last year’s top juniors have chosen not to play high school soccer this year.
Senior Daniel Wang, for example, is likely not going to play this year. Wang said, “Playing for the school soccer team this year isn’t as appealing as it was last year. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy playing for Carlmont last year.”
Wang also added that seniors John Cunningham and Austin Driver won’t be playing this year, either.
Even those players who will be returning this year don’t seem too optimistic.
Junior Malcolm McClellan said, “We don’t have as much talent as we did last year, but we have good chemistry amongst the juniors. It will be tough to make CCS; I think we’ll do decent in the league.”
Junior Brent Jang was even more pessimistic about the season when he said, “I think we are going to get relegated.”
Try-outs for boy’s soccer will take place the first week of November, and this year, there is a new twist on team restrictions: a Junior Varsity (JV) team will replace the Frosh-Soph team, thus allowing the juniors and seniors who do not make varsity to play on the JV team rather than get cut.
Junior Jacob Segal said, “I think this will be really good. It will give lots of players the opportunity to start, which they wouldn’t do on varsity.”
McClellan, on the other hand, doesn’t think the new-found JV team will bring many changes this year, as he believes that with the few number of returning players to the varsity squad, there will be many openings for juniors and seniors to make the team.
While teams often become more motivated after losing a heart-breaker, that does not seem to be the case with the boy’s soccer team at Carlmont. Not only do some players doubt the team will be able to qualify for CCS this year, but others think they might even get relegated.
When the season kicks off this winter, fans and players will finally receive an answer for the potential of this year’s team. Whether it’s relegation, CCS champions, or something in between, this is sure to be an interesting season.
