See what Coach Joseph Porter and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Sayre 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?
Coach Joseph Porter
It’s an interesting season. We lost our top goal scorer. We lost our starting goalie and a couple of key seniors, so it’s a bit of an rebuilding year. That can be quite fun too, because you don’t know what you have until you get into the process. We’re young, but there are some good players that are just going to have to grow up quickly. It can be maybe stressful, but really it’s kind of enjoyable. It’s starting fresh, starting new and really teaching a lot of these kids some advanced stuff that they haven’t quite learned yet.
It’s an interesting district for us to be in. Soccer-wise, we’re able to compete most years, but you’re going up against Henry Clay, who’s won a couple of state titles. Bryan Station has always had some good players and now they’re building a really strong team. They’ve got a couple of players that are there that are just going to light it up this year. So, that’s going to be dangerous. And Scott County’s always got a good squad. It will be interesting to see what Douglass puts together. It’s going to take them a couple of years to build.
But it’s good experience for these kids, and we like the challenge. We’ve got the small-school tournament, which is great for us and we take a lot of pride in that. But at the same time, if you’re going to build a program if you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to go up against tougher competition. At the end of the day, win or lose, it makes them better soccer players, which is all I want to see. It’s tough but, it has its benefits too.
Roan Sanders, he’s going to be a sophomore: small but mighty. He’s a really talented player. He’s got to replace a lot of goal scoring, so we’ll see, but he’s really strong on the ball. He’s already stepping up even as a sophomore to help lead the team.
Matthew Bernard is going to have to step in goal some for us. He hasn’t played goal in a couple of years, because we had Robbie Goodman, but he’ll be pivotal for us on the field as a physical leader as a vocal leader and stepping into goal while we work on training some new keepers.
Wick Halose is going to be that general in the middle of the field for us. He’s vocal, he works his tail off, which is what I tell guys is all I could ever ask for is to work hard. Leave it on the field. If the result is the result, all you can say is ‘hey, I gave it all I could.’
Those three guys are going to be really pivotal for us to have a successful year. But it’s not just those three. There’s four, five, six, seven guys that all have to contribute in some way. And they’re going to have to contribute quick and early.
One of our returning defenders, Andres Mitchell, is going to be extremely vital because we lost several others. His brother was a starting defender last year. He’s going to step up and be huge for us on the back line to help kind of mold that defensive unit.
We’re kind of throwing some guys in the deep end, but from what I’ve seen, everybody’s going to be able to respond.
My goal has always been it’s players first. I want to make them better soccer players. If I’m doing my job and they’re working hard, we’re probably going to win some games along the way, which is great. We’re a competitive program. We want to win. But I’ve never sacrificed that for the development of these guys. I want to see them become better, whether it’s playing a better short pass or finishing a little bit stronger or defending better, even if it’s the basics. We’ve got some guys out here sometimes that are brand new to soccer, which is a big learning curve, but it’s a challenge for me, sometimes, but it’s what I like because I want to develop these guys into better soccer players.
Matthew Bernard, junior
We’ve got a whole lot of new players this year. Probably more freshmen than I’ve seen in the past few years, so we’re hopefully building the program for future years. I think we’ve got a lot of good young players this year.
I think it will be good. I’ve missed playing goalie a little bit. It would be good to be back in the box.
I think one of the things about this program is we try to compete with the big schools that have two, three times as many players as we do. (With) a lot of fitness and a lot of hard work, I think we can compete with the bigger teams.
Roan Sanders, sophomore
Last year I started on the wing, actually. I usually don’t play the forward, and so, I’m really looking forward to it. I think its going to be a new challenge.
I’m used to playing against bigger players. Nothing new, really. Offensively, we’ve got a lot of young players, a lot of sophomores and juniors, so I think next year is going to be really good. But this year we’ve just got to pass the ball, not too much dribbling. We’ve just got to keep the ball and we’ll create chances doing that.
On playing in the district. I think it’s a really good challenge. I know a lot of the players through club, and I just think it will be a good challenge for us and will help grow us as a team. I think, by the end of the season, we’ll be very good.
Andres Mitchell, senior
It’s my senior year and I only came to Sayre when I was a sophomore, and my brother was a year above me, so I’ve been kind of under his shadow. We’re close, and he was always showing me the ropes and now it’s my turn to do that for these younger guys, these freshmen. It’s something I really look forward to because it’s a leadership opportunity. I’m all about that.
Parker Dean, senior
Last year we had 11 seniors, so it kind of brought us down this year because we don’t have as many kids this year. We only have three seniors. I’m excited for the challenge we’re going to have because we have a lot of room to build with this team.
