Both soccer teams wrapped up their preseasons this weekend with a final scrimmage before this week’s opening to the regular season. On Saturday, Head Coach Nancy Slocum brought the to Reading Memorial High School and the boys head coach Ray Pavlik traveled with his squad to North Andover High School.
The girls, who in 2010 finished 12-2-4 and fell in the quarterfinals of the MIAA North Division 1 Tournament, play their first regular season game on Wednesday against Bedford High School at 3:45 p.m.
The boys, who are 2009 and 2010 MIAA Division 2 State Champions, and who finished the 2010 season 21-1-1, play at Bedford High School at 4 p.m.
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Pavlik said this year’s team is quite new compared to last year, after the team graduated 15 seniors. So the preseason has been a bit of a learning process for all involved.
“We lost 15 seniors last year, so we’ve got a tremendous number of new kids coming in,” Pavlik said. “But we’ve got a good nucleus of kids and the kids have had a lot of experience in big games, having won two state championships in a row.
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“A lot of the kids have been here for both [title runs] and played minutes in as big of situations as you can. So we can build around those core guys and I’m pretty impressed with the guys that have been working to sort of fill in the other spots on the field,” Pavlik continued.
The team is young, with a total of seven seniors, including three starters, and Pavlik said he’s seen situations someone would expect from a team comprised of so many underclassmen.
“We’ve looked very good at times and we’ve looked pretty bad at times,” Pavlik said. “It’s due to a lot of inexperience. My hope is we can continue to get better.”
Having lost that many seniors from the 2010 class, it's almost like coaching a whole new team, the coach said.
“There are things that we’re going to have to do that we can’t just assume — last year we lost six kids so we came in and basically everybody knew what our system of play was and the types of things we wanted to do and had played with each other for multiple years,” he said.
“This year we’ve got kids and combinations that have never played together,” Pavlik said. “They’re not familiar with our system or our style of play and it takes some time for them to try to figure out also just what this level of soccer looks like as they have not played varsity soccer before.”
To bring the players up to varsity level, the coach said practices and scrimmages have been beneficial, and that it’s “a little trial by fire.” Pavlik and his coaching staff, along with the seniors, will have to convince the younger players that they need to play a certain way, whether or not they’ve experienced it before.
“It’s hard to convince something that they need to do a certain way until they get into an active situation and realize they’re not going to succeed without it,” Pavlik said, “which is where some of the mistakes we’ve seen come from. And what you hope is that when you make a mistake once, then you don’t make it again.”
The field is pretty set for the season, Pavlik said, with a starting group that has been steadily improving. Everyone is developing, kids are coming off the bench and the coaches are in the process of figuring out the best combination of players.
“We’ve got a couple kids banged up and injured that’ll help give us some depth when they return to action,” Pavlik added.
This season’s co-captains are three-year starting seniors, Chris Walker-Jacks and Mike O’Brien, both of whom Pavlik said are outstanding players.
“Both of them work so hard that they’re great models for what you need to do to succeed,” Pavlik said. “Every day they come prepared, they’re in outstanding physical shape [and] they’ll work throughout their practice.
“As the younger kids are looking around and saying, ‘How do I get better?’ you look at [Walker-Jacks and O’Brien] and say 'If you want to get better, you have to work like this.'”
This year more than ever Pavlik said senior leadership will be a key factor. And while this season is a little different than previous, with seniors being a “minority group,” some of the juniors and the returning players will also have to lead.
CONCORD-CARLISLE GIRLS SOCCER
Coach: Nancy Slocum (14th year)
League: Dual County League Small Division
Last Year: 12-2-4 — lost 2-0 to No. 3 Central Catholic as a sixth-seed in the quarterfinals of the MIAA North Division 1 tournament.
Key to Success: “I think our key to success is to always, that if we keep striving to, keep pushing ourselves to be better and better and never feel like we’ve arrived anywhere. Like if we win a game, great, move on, make ourselves better; if we lose a game learn from it, move on, make ourselves better. But I think we need to just keep pushing ourselves and hold ourselves to our own highest standard and not use wins or losses as any kind of judgment about how we’re doing.”
Game to Watch: “The next one.”
Coach’s Take: “I think we’re at a good point in this phase in the season. It’s a long season and a lot can happen between now and November, so, we've just got to do the work.”
CONCORD-CARLISLE BOYS SOCCER
Coach: Ray Pavlik (10th season)
League: Dual County League Small Division
Last Year: 21-1-1 — MIAA Division 2 State Champions.
Returning players: “We do have a nice core of kids that have come back — probably have five or six starters that are coming back. A lot of the kids that have played off the bench have played big minutes in big games, so hopefully that translates to success this year.”
Key to success: “Making sure that kids work hard. I think technically we are a pretty sound team, we just got to make sure that we’re working hard off the ball and getting everybody on the same page towards one goal and committing towards getting better every time we take the field.”
Game to Watch: “Fun games for us are L-S and A-B, but the one that is always most special to us is our Kicks for Cancer game on Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. It’s an awesome event, there’s a huge crowd — L-S and us have been two of the top teams in the state so anytime we match up it’s a fun night, especially with that backdrop Kicks for Cancer game.
“Kicks for Cancer is the fifth annual game where we play with all proceeds going to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to benefit cancer research. We’ve raised a total of $44,000 in four years. This year we’ve expanded. We’ll have six games taking place on this field during the day starting at 3 p.m. There’s a goal to raise $30,000 in one night, with great prizes. It’s going to be fun.”
Take on Season: “I’m cautiously optimistic at this point. I think we have talent and we’ve got a long way to go before that talent becomes cohesive on the field and results in wins. The kids are untested, so we’re going to get in situations right now and we just don’t know how they’re going to react. How do you react when you’re down two goals? How do you react when things don’t go your way? Right now we don’t know. So my hope is the leadership and the core group of kids that we have that really have seen a high level of high school soccer, will lead us, and the other kids will fill in and dedicate themselves to working hard and getting us back so at the end of the season. I’d like to hope we have a chance to defend our title, like 'OK we’re in the mix there in the end.'”