See what Coach Manes Preptit and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Bryan Station boys’ soccer season.
Jared Peck, Real-Time Sports Reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader and co-founder of SoccerintheBluegrass.com, visited all nine Lexington high schools and spoke with coaches and players about the upcoming season. Over the next several days, SITB will release the notes and videos from those interviews that were used for the Herald-Leader’s preseason preview: Boys’ soccer: Will state’s toughest region turn out a new contender?
KHSAA link: Bryan Station schedule
Coach Manes Preptit
We’ve got a bunch of returners, a few new guys coming out. Our underclassmen size is really big. That’s where a lot of our strength is going to be coming from in the next few years. It’s slowly coming together.
Every year that I’ve been here, our program is getting stronger and better. We’re earning the respect I think we deserve. This year we’re going to be stronger than we were last year. We finished second in the district last year. I don’t see any reason why we can’t finish first. We have the players. They want to be out here. They want to work hard every day, so I think we can do it.
In our midfield, we’ve go Diallo, of course. He was here last year. He pretty much made a name for himself as someone you’ve got to watch out for. Up top we’ve got Enoch as my center striker. He’s really talented. And of course we’ve got Eddy up top, too. Even our subs coming off the bench are going to be strong. Whenever we sub, we’re not going to do down in strength.
In the back on our defense, we’ve got Omar who is going to be a senior this year and I think his leadership is going to shine through and Muriel also.
We actually had to change our formation this year to fit our team since we have so many goal scorers on the team. Scoring goals is not going to be a problem. We are going to be a very possession-minded team. Possess the ball from the back all the way to the midfield and getting the ball up to my strikers. At times you’re going to see us play direct, and, at times, you’re going to see us play very technical soccer. I don’t think scoring is going to be too much of an issue with this team.
Enoch, Diallo and Eddy. Enoch is capable of playing in midfield, but Enoch plays striker. They are able to hold onto the ball, distribute the ball. Their movement off the ball has gotten better. My striker Enoch, last year was his first year playing, but he came out. He actually played JV. He was like a deer in the headlights. He didn’t know what to do. This year, after playing club for a year and getting the coaching and coming out to kickarounds, he’s really grown into himself.
Diallo’s just been a menace since he came out here last year. Every team is going to be watching him. Every team is going to try to double team him, but he’s good enough to where he can always beat those double teams.
In my defense, I’ve got Omar and Uriel as my seniors holding it back there. I think that their skill and their leadership back there is going to help us out a lot.
Beat Scott Co. 3-0 in season. Lost in PKs in tourney: We’re looking for revenge this year. I’ve been talking to Maxwell, the Scott County coach. He’s got plans for us and we’ve got plans for him. He was scouting us this past weekend. And I got a chance to go scout him also.
Our team is not going to go down in skill this year. If anything we’re going to be stronger this year than we were last year. And I think if a team takes us for granted just because we’re Bryan Station, they they’re going to pay for going easy on us.
This something we’re doing something different where we have big brothers and little brothers. And my seniors are going to be leading those groups and they are going to have a chance to talk to each other about last season, about this season and about what our expectations as a team is. They meet with me and my coaching staff regularly and we talk about what we expect them to instill about our younger kids. That way we build a culture of success and leadership on the team.
All the city teams are going to be strong and tough to beat. But we’ve also gotten better too. We’re not the same old Bryan Station that everybody always looked forward to playing.
Jose Lopez, senior
On Coach Preptit: He’s a good person, you know. He tries to stay on top of things and try to stay organized. He pushes us a lot.
Omar Bojang, senior
It’s been really great to see the growth since my freshman year. We’ve just gotten better every year, work harder every year and gotten more organized. Hopefully we have some more growth this year and get some more things done.
We look forward to the challenge. We don’t shy away from that at all. We know that we’re in a tough city and a tough district, so we just like the competition. It brings out the best in us.
On loss in Districts: We know we were that close last year. So, just working so it never has to be that close. And then we go extra because we don’t want to end that way ever again. That was pretty bad.
Uriel Trujillo, senior
Every year we win more games than last year, so I hope we get more games this year, again.
We’re a much better possession team. We know how to possess the ball from the back to the middle and to the front. And our attackers are really good at scoring goals.
