The MHS Boys Varsity Soccer Team are the defending Central Coast Section (CCS) champions, with high hopes of making CCS again this year, Head Coach James Williams said.
Coach Williams believes that the team will be able to make CCS again, but they will need to work hard to work as a team, he said.
“Building the cohesion – a lot of these guys never played together, so it’s just building in the guys that are now new to the team and building those relationships and the ability to play together,” Williams said.
Senior Toma Iwase believes it is going to be tough to adapt without some of last year’s seniors, he said.
“They were the heart of our team, so it was a pretty big loss,” Toma said.
There are only 40 teams that make CCS every year, so it will be hard, but it is possible, Williams said.
“It’s all based on points,” Williams said. “We have as good a shot as we usually do, just game by game. And we try to maximize the amount of points we can get.”
Even though the team recently played against Mountain View, the reigning California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State champions, Williams is optimistic about making the CCS championship again this year, he said. The MHS varsity boys soccer team lost 0-4 to Mountain View according to Maxpreps.
“They will probably be one of the best teams in the state,” he said. “We played well, all things considered.”
As for last year, the most beneficial practice the team did to prepare and qualify for the CCS championship was setting specific goals as well as setting good and achievable expectations, Williams said.
“Just playing together last few years, we’ve been building that identity—that this is what we expect, that this is where we’re at, this is what we’re going to do,” Williams said.
Senior Jerrel Phan believes the team is able to make the CCS championship based on their performance in their first few games, but it will be tough and realistically may not happen, he said.
“I hope we can, but I don’t think we will,” he said. “I don’t think we know how to play as a team yet.”
Phan believes that the team’s hopes of making CCS will improve over the course of the season with more teamwork, he said.
“Once you (teammates) feel more comfortable with each other and we know each other more, then I think we’ll play a lot better,” he said.
Before CCS can even be considered, the team needs a lot of improvement, especially on offense, Phan added.
“We’ve always been a more defensive team,” he said. “So we’re just trying to focus more on actually scoring.”
To accomplish this goal, the team has introduced new scoring drills into their daily practices this year to be able to improve offensively, Phan said.
“There’s a lot more finishing (scoring) drills because none of us can really score, so we’re just trying to work on that,” Phan said.
The most important thing the team needs to do to be able to qualify and play in the CCS championship is momentum, Williams added.
“We just need to continue to get better every day – every day, even if it’s incremental, every day, you got to get a little better,” he said.
