There is only one goal varsity soccer coach Bostjan Kolaric has for his 2010 team: postseason or bust.
"We need to be in the playoffs," said Kolaric, who has coached the soccer program at the Dexter School for six years. "That's our first step. After that I think anything is possible."
This will be the third season that Dexter's soccer team has been recognized as a varsity sport. The program has been around for a number of years, but only at the JV level, and Kolaric got his team to the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament last season.
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Dexter finished with a 10-6-1 record in 2009 and the head coach expects to see some of his younger players take a step forward in 2010. Michael Murphy and Brendan Fitzgerald will be leading the way again for Dexter.
Murphy led the team in scoring from the forward position, while Fitzgerald was the calming influence and play-maker as a mid-fielder. This dynamic duo will have to continue to make strides to pace this year's edition.
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"They just carried the team," Kolaric said of his two captains. "They are great kids. They are great leaders. As far as they carry the team is as far as we are going to go."
Between the pipes for the second year will be Mark Fidler, who was brought to Dexter last year as a sophomore.
Kolaric has had to build this varsity program from the ground up. He said it was hard to get skilled soccer players to come to Dexter because it only offered the sport at the JV level. Kolaric and his coaches might miss out on some of the best players because of the infancy of the program, but he said he likes to take in kids that excel in more than one sport.
"We have a great mix," he said. "A lot of kids are not necessarily coming in just for soccer or hockey or tennis. These kids are multi-sport athletes."
However, this fall Kolaric will have soccer on the mind. His goal is to keep improving and to keep growing this young program at Dexter, and he said he is geared up for the beginning of the season.
"We have improved in everything," he said. "Getting our team back this year everyone already knows that this is a big chance for us."
