See what Coach Chris Grimm and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Lafayette 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: Lafayette schedule
Coach Chris Grimm
Last season was a banner year for us. It was probably the best season we’ve had in program history. But it was in large part due to our senior class last year. We had a great senior class. We had great leadership in that class, just great kids overall and they were a pleasure to coach.
We are a brand new team this year, basically. Our senior class is small this year. We have less than 10 guys in our senior class – not a lot of guys that had big roles last year. So, (there are) a lot roles up for grabs that can be earned, a lot of roles to be filled by new guys, a lot of guys new to varsity. So, there’ll definitely be an adjustment period for us, and it will take us a little bit of time.
Last year, we kind of had an idea, even before the season started, how we were going to play. Maybe there was like two or three roles we needed to figure out. But it was pretty set going into the season. This year, we have no idea how we’re going to play, where people are going to play … every single role is up for grabs, and the system we play and all that … we’ll see how things go. It’s going to be a process.
That’s one of the exciting things about high school soccer in general. Every year is pretty much a new year. And it’s such a short season. It’s three months, basically, that you need to have your team figured out in order to be ready for the postseason. That’s always exciting, always challenging for us as coaches. This year, there will definitely be some experimenting going on trying to figure out what we like, who plays well together, chemistry. We’re really harping right now developing chemistry on and off the field with the guys.
We’ve got a lot of really solid players, a lot of guys I think can make a difference for us. Max Nusbacher, obviously, he was a big part of what we did last year. He was a captain for us last year, made all-state. So, we expect him to have a big year and do a lot of things for us. We may ask him to do a little bit more for us this year, based on our personnel. Last year, he was just kind of a piece in the cog of what we had going on throughout the season, and this year, he might need to be in a bigger role.
Sidney Lee, I think he led our team in assists last year. He came off the bench and started, one or the other throughout the year. He should be a nice offensive piece for us, whether it’s scoring goals, assisting on goals, really good on set plays.
Ty Mathews is a guy who was a sophomore last year, and going into the season didn’t know what his role was going to be and stepped up big time as a center back for us. He played excellent all season long. He may play some in the back for us this year. He may play some in the midfield. He’s a very versatile guy, very athletic, smart, great distributer or the ball and a great ball striker as well.
And I don’t want to forget about John Barton. John was probably the heart and soul of our defense last year, which was very good. John is a great kid, great leadership qualities and he gives everything he’s got out on the field. He’s going to be the heart and soul of our team, I think, this year.
You look around the city, and a lot of teams lost some key components of what they had last year. I was talking to a coach out at Bluegrass State Games and he was like ‘man, everybody looks brand new this year.’ And he was just talking about the local teams here.
There’s one or two schools that have a good amount coming back at certain positions, but overall, everybody’s going to be a brand new team this year. Which makes it kind of exciting, because you don’t really know how things are going to go during the season, when some other years, maybe it can be predictable.
Max Nusbacher, senior
I think that this season is going to be a challenge for us because the talent level has kind of dropped over the last couple of years overall. We’re really going to need to play together as a team. … I think we can be a good team if we play well together.
Our defense should be good this year. We’ve got a couple of guys returning, our two center backs were very good for us last season and they’re both returning. Then we’ve got a couple of additions from the JV team that will help us out.
Defensive midfield last year, all-city, going to be counted on to be a threat this year.
I’ve definitely improved physically. I’ve gotten bigger, stronger, faster, and I really think I can score some more goals this year. I scored three goals last year, but I think I can reach a much higher number this year.
Our district is one of the toughest ones in the state, and you never know who’s going to get out. It’s always tough to get out.
John Barton, senior
Our program does a really good job of building us up and having us work together, no matter what the skill level is, year in and year out. We’re always a force when we’re working together.
It starts with us two in the center back and the other seniors on the team making sure everyone is knowing what they need to be doing throughout the season and how we need to be working as a team to reach the goals we set for ourselves. … just be that leadership roles.
Sidney Lee for sure. I think he can do great things for us this season. His shot is going to be a force this year. He’s really technical and well-rounded.
