See what Coach Jonathan Kincheloe and some of his players had to say about the upcoming Lexington Catholic 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: Lexington Catholic schedule
Coach Jonathan Kincheloe
We return a couple of juniors and a couple of seniors that are strong. Tyler Kenney, Keegan Bailey will be back, both all-state players last year. Then we’ve got Jackson Kirn, Ryan Banahan and Wilson will be back this year and those guys had strong minutes last year. Most of them started almost every game, so we’ll be looking for a lot out of them – more leadership. Wilson always does a job being a quiet leader.
We’ve go no returning goalie and three inexperienced guys coming in, so we’re trying to progress them as soon as possible. We’ve got a lot of underclassmen who have stepped up and are trying to fill the slots elsewhere.
Their connection to one another. They’re supporting each other. They’re building off each other’s weaknesses and trying to step each other in the right direction. (They’re) pushing each other every day and they’re being positive. Last year, at this point, we had a lot of negativity because we weren’t where we wanted to be, where we needed to be, but this year, it’s been a lot of positive feedback. Everybody knows what we lost and knows what we have to do to recover. We know there’s inexperience behind us at goal keeper and that’s a big spot to fill. But they’ve done a great job, so far, and I’m looking forward to getting in some games.
(With) Tyler, (we need) consistency and not falling out of the play just because he’s a forward. He’s our high point guy, but when we’re in games where we’re in defensive battles and we’re stuck in our 18, how’s he going to contribute? That’s the big question there. How is he going to continue to stay involved. And can we get more attack out of the back four. We’re changing formations this year, going four in the back. Last year, we went three in the back, but we’ll see if we can get Keegan pushed up more and get him into the offense.
There’s just not as much experience as we’ve had in the past. A lot of these guys are dual sport athletes, so they haven’t been playing club all offseason. We’ve only got probably six clubs that play club at a high level and we’ve got a lot of lacrosse players, a lot of basketball players, so we’re looking to make the connection and get touches under their feet.
It’s hard to say, right now. I know a lot of schools lost some, but they had a lot to replace with. We might be at the bottom to start, but by the end we hope to progress toward the top to compete for the top spot.
Keegan Bailey
I think we’re doing really good. Our defense is looking really good and our offense is trying to get the ball moving around better.
With our defense, I think that we’re fine with any of their offense. It’s just that we’ve got to work the ball through the middle and get it going up top a little. But I’m really proud of our defense.
We lost a really good goalie, Jacob Roberts, last year, and we have a goalie who’s never played soccer before and he played really well in Canada and I think he’s really stepped up. Ethan Penn
Tyler Kenney
We lost a lot of our older players last year, so our team’s really young this year. Most of our starting lineup is going to be underclassmen, but I think it’s going to look good by the end of the season.
A lot of the younger kids are pretty excited to take their chance and see if they can live up to the expectations of the guys that left last year.
