TROOP OUT 2014

29 August @ STA vs. St. James (4-0)

Shawnee Dispatch Write-up

Well, if they give the Purple Heart for making BWhite's brainchild Troop Out go, then Lisa Stoecklein deserves it. She brought the most layered Troop Out Event to a grand crescendo that the boys punctuated with a 4-0 exclamation mark. 

During the week the student body wrote letters to Leo Brown's unit in Afganistan (13 family names who had recently given birth were honored before the match), brought in snacks and toiletries, and purchased over 400 Troop Out shirts. We donned a red, white and blue uniform that just screamed America. I always love the march out, this year with the Wentworth color guard and an inspiring Bob Scott prayer followed by the Brigade's National Anthem. Wow. The student body unrolled a giant flag that covered their mass. 

Lisa made all of this happen while helping St. James organize its Pinkout side of the event. The Barlett's were big on both sides of the event as well. 

And then the boys unleashed deadball clinic 2014: a perfectly-run 2-man where nose-for-the-goal Feuerborn finds early twine, then the Brown bender off the set piece, Lucas' quick free kick into a Schneller goal off Feuerborn's rebound, and then the second-half corner that Luke finished. 

Lucas and Cole are both growing into that target position, but both need to stay higher, then get to their spots quicker, and not clog the middle. They will generate even more offense as they become more and more comfortable there. Lucas drew two huge fouls that lead to two goals. 

BWhite name Matthew Brown Player of the Match as he did a very nice job at the defensive center, being available to initiate offense, defending, and directing the offensive mids. Then throw in his deadball activity, and well BWhite Player of the Match. (Hey, and he designed the a Troop Out emblem.) We have to give Kutey a special shoutout (creating 4 first-half corners, scoring a big goal), Feuereborn for getting it all started, delivering a solid overall match, and Holland for his consistent, solid play in the back).

We have to give a special shoutout to Matthew Romme for that wonderfully athletic save he made on one of St. James' few opportunities (a special shoutout to Aquinas alum, Steven Grow, who has logged some 1-on-1 time training Matthew some this summer). Check it out!

The game did have 6 minutes or so to go when the refs called it for the proximity of the lightening. The idea was to move everyone out of danger, but all of the players, fans, parents, and coaches just wanted to hang around a little while longer to revel a bit in this great evening. 

Thank you BWhite, Lisa, Dena and Rich, our girls' soccer team,  the entire St. James community for helping to create such a memorable evening. And I know I have left out tons of people like John Burgess, Steve Dubois and Lisa's silent helpers. But we are very blessed and appreciative. 

STATS:

First Half:  Saints: Shots: 10 (3) Corners: 9 (Kutey 4, Arias 2, Johnston, Brown, Heying)

Thunder: Shots:2 (0). Corners: 0

Fuereborn (Brown and Heying run 2-man, with Heying's cross magically kept alive by Arias, into a Kutey shot: just wow!) 32:37

Brown (Bartlett earns us the restart) 3:26

Second Half: Saints:  Shots: 7 (5) Corners. 1 (Younger) 

Schneller (follows the rebound of Feuerborn) 24:54

Kutey (the only corner of the second half earned by Younger, delivered by Johnston) 15:07

Thunder: Shots: Shots: 4 (3). Corners: 0

The Event

Blue/Gold 2014

27 August: Varsity vs JV (50), Varsity vs Varsity (30) 1-0

Well, as BWhite said, "It was dress rehearsal." We found out that Zack needs to have a back up pair of shoes as short a cleat and some laces affects his shot in a not-so-positive way. Charlie's new job is to make sure no one is wearing jewelry. 

Skevington had an impressive night defensively with Evans against us, yet we still generated plenty of offense. We hit a couple of posts, skied a few, and missed a couple of 1-on-1's. We did generate 19 shots with 13 of them on goal, adding 7 corners. So that part of our match seemed pretty good. We did, though, come into the season wondering if we would finish better this year. More opportunity should lead to more finishes.  We will see. 

Bartlett did appear to be a nice fit at target. He still needs to stay more central and to return to a higher position after he releases the ball. Younger was good as well, and he would have tallied a few assists if  he had brought an extra cleat for Schneller. 

We get to play for real in a couple of days. These matches with St. James are always close, so we can only hope that we cash our chances at a better rate.  

Stats: 50 minutes vs. JV

Varsity:  Shots: 19 (13). Corners:  7 (Schneller 3, D'Adamo, Feuerborn, Nilsen, Heying)

13:29 Kutey (Brown and Johnson run 2-man with Brown keeping, dropping it far post.)

JV:  Shots: 2 (2), Corners: 1

2014 Sneak Peek

Last year's boys' season just ended about as crazily as it could have. We drug ourselves into playoffs that seemed doomed to be our 3rd straight without a title, but the boys just would not have any of that doomsday talk. Behind one of the smallest senior classes in STA history, we put a run on that had to have made every alum proud.  BWhite kept telling them just to get to ship, and we would all just see what might happen. Get there we did, and now we need to defend it.

Gone are two senior starters who definitely impacted last year's title. Center midfielder Nick Hagenkord is now playing for the Dayton Flyers. He just flew during last year's state final, scoring all 3 state final-goals above the heads of all St. James defenders.  Right back, Ben Moss, spent his day hanging out with Gatorade Player of the Year, Steven Enna, keeping him out of the net.

This year's team will offer up as many seniors as we have fielded in a year, so quite different from last year's team.  We bring back 4 guys who have played varsity since their freshman year: Centerbacks, Michael Velasco and Matthew Holland (a preseason All America), defensive center midfielder, Matthew Brown (also a preseason All America), and right wing, Luke Kutey who should have a lot to say about how many goals we put in the net this season.

Junior center midfielders Tyler Stoecklein and Lucas Bartlett return for their 3rd year as varsity starters, now bringing some size to match their skill. We look for big things out of both of these two.

We love both of our outside backs. Blake Heying and Jay Johnston defend well but also can come forward to produce some attack. We are deep at both of those positions as well, giving us some flexibility to throw Jay up top if we need more attack as Matthew Johnson and Nick D'Adamo (who also might play some at left wing)both play very well. We will have our deepest team in years. Seth Castinado and PJ Hopfinger are also quite good at centerback.

The key will be for us not only to cash our reliable set pieces, but also to produce more from the run of play.  We are hoping playing more 4-3-3 will contribute to that. Cole Younger makes an excellent target in the middle, but so might Bartlett or Joseph Skevington, freeing up a center midfield spot of Dan Geist, Will Cole or Pedro Arias. Sophomore Danny Gabriel is in that mix as well. 

We do expect lots of competition during tryouts and early in the season for playing time.  We did get 9 matches in this summer, using various combinations to see just what might click. Even though we went 9-0, we definitely were not an offensive juggernaut. Tony Schiltz and Ben Gasparovich had the two goals that stood up for the Sunflower Games championship.

We also have our fastest player, Kevin Feuerborn, who has added some size to use along that front line as well.

We bring back Derek Engel in goal without a reliable back-up, but he has looked very strong this summer.  Junior Matthew Romme is in training, but he has very little experience.

We do have a couple of new quirks in the schedule.  We still open with Troop Out, but the Lee's Summit tourney is washed up, so we will take part in the Titan Classic in Wichita with a chance to measure ourselves against the top teams in Wichita.  The Gateway Classic will have two top brackets this year, so we will break out of the Rockhurst bracket (we will see them in Top Dawg, anyway) with CBC and Cherry Creek and a great opportunity to, perhaps, get a title match with Sandia Prep out of New Mexico if we can play well. 

The EKL looks full of big fish this year, as usual.  Blue Valley Northwest, defending 6A, champ looks to be a preseason favorite in Kansas once again, loaded with good players.  The EKL won 6A, 5A and 1-4A last year.  

This will be year 27 for STA Boys' Soccer, year 27 for Coach Ewing, year 21 for Coach Hammons, and year 10 for BWhite. And we will need all hands on deck for this one.  Coach Brown and Coach Luengo will help out as well as run the Junior Varsity and and C-team, with the help of Will Ragsdale and Bryan Turner.

Let's sail.