It was a cold night on the soccer pitch, the GB varsity soccer team had just been defeated with some of the key players playing their last game.
Last season, the varsity soccer team made it to the semi-finals in division two. However the team lost some of their key players. They are looking to rebound from this setback.
Multiple Granite Bay varsity soccer players stepped up to do an interview. Hayden Meyer, a sophomore at Granite Bay, discussed what he was doing to prepare for his senior season.
“Compiled with club and private training, mostly just more touches on the ball every day. It’s [my] chance to get better with every practice, I feel like about a percent or more better, plus games of tournaments overall, just getting as much experience from higher level I can. I’ve been training with people older than me most of my life, so hopefully that can translate into this season.”
Meyer believes that it will be a very difficult experience. He hopes that his years of practice and hard work will come to fruition and allow his senior season to be the best of his high school career.
“It’s our big senior season, so I feel like the loss of our previous seniors, we can really show what we’re capable of, rather than just relying on a couple of people, [we want to be] bringing back GBHS Soccer” Meyer said.
The loss of previous seniors is most definitely significant. The team’s top scorer, Talan Rochelle, graduated from Granite Bay and is now playing at Gonzaga. Another key departure includes Cole Garcia, who Meyer highlighted specifically.
Another varsity senior, Dylan Phillips, discussed what it meant to lose those players and who he expects to come into those leadership roles.
“The loss of our seniors who graduated after last season will definitely be prevalent in the shape of our team this year. However, we are also gaining some good players who will prove to be important to this team in the upcoming season.”
The loss of seniors is always a big blow to any varsity team, but it is important to remember that other schools deal with the same situation. In any sport, players have to grow into leadership roles, and Phillips highlighted a few players who he expects to do so.
“Depending on who plays this season, I think our captains will be either Trent Conley, Adam Elsawaf, or Niko Bannai. I feel that these would be good choices for captains this season as they are quality players who have a lot of respect from other players on the team.”
Additionally, Phillips named two younger players who have the potential to break out.
“The 2 players I think of who will get pulled up to varsity this season that will prove to be important are Alex Reyes and Mason Yzuel. I think these players will help the overall shape of our team as they play a very high level of soccer at the ECNL level.”
Phillips has high hopes for the team. He pointed out that there is a good balance of now veteran players who have opportunities to step up, as well as younger talent who will be given a chance to make a name for themselves on the team.
Finally, Matthew Robirds, another senior at Granite Bay discussed where the team reached last year, as well as his hopes for the upcoming season.
“Last year, we were able to make it to division two semi finals. I believe we eventually lost against Del Oro, definitely a rifle. And we kind of went back and forth all season, trading wins and losses, but we were content with how the season ended last year. We went further than we had expected, and I think that’s kind of the same mindset going in this year. I think there’s definitely doubts about the season, maybe that we can’t go as far but, you know, last year they said that we weren’t going to be able to even make it into the playoffs, and we definitely exceeded those expectations.”
Robirds points at a certain mindset for this team. He stated that the team will be seen as an underdog given the loss of last year’s senior players, but he also said that the team could thrive under those lesser expectations.
