Update: New St. Charles West Soccer Coach Aims for A Winning Season

Andrew Reynolds is on a mission, and that is to restore a tradition of winning for the St. Charles West boys soccer program.

“Winning cures everything,” Reynolds said. “I hate to lose.”

The Warriors were 13-13 last season under Ray Stahl, who went to Pattonville. Reynolds, a West alum who played collegiately at Blackburn College in Carlinville, IL before transferring to the University of Missouri, said he wants to improve on that .500 record by winning the Gateway Athletic Conference North and the district tournament.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “Those are the goals we set, so we’re going to try to reach them. We’re going to have to work to get there.”

Offense:

Reynolds said senior Mark Cline would “be big” for the Warriors. Cline is the highest-scoring returning player, bringing in 16 goals last year.  Also expected to produce for West is senior Ryan McCrum, who scored six goals as a junior.

Along with junior sweeper Brendan Burke, a co-captain who “will be everywhere,” Reynolds said West also has a talented sophomore class and expects three freshmen to be on the varsity squad.

“We’ve got a lot of young talent,” Reynolds said. “A lot of guys will have to step up early. We’ve got a good, core group of guys, and I think we can compete. We’ve got the pieces.”

Reynolds said the Warriors got away from fundamentals last year and would “always go for the home run.”

“We need to play soccer, actually, and put some passes together instead of just kicking it,” he added. “We need to get away from kicking and running. We’re trying to break their bad habits.”

Defense:

In the net will be Zachary (Hatcher) Dooley, who had 1.49 goals against average last season. Reynolds said the 4-4-2 defense in front of Dooley needs to learn how to contain and that should keep them in games, even against more offensively talented teams.

“I don’t think we’re going to win a lot of games by a lot of goals, but we are going to win a lot of games,” Reynolds said. “I don’t care if a team beat us 5-0 last year, we’re not going to quit. If we hang around, that’s all you need sometimes—is to get that one.”

Coach:

Reynolds is in his first season as the head coach of the boys team. In his first year coaching the girls, he helped them improve on a 13-9 mark in 2010 to a 16-6 record and a conference title last spring.

Schedule:

against Hazelwood Central in the St. Charles West-Fort Zumwalt East Tournament, which will run through Sept. 1. The first regular season game will be against Parkway North on Sept. 7.

While the Warriors played to a .500 record, they lost some lopsided matches. Reynolds said he’ll be looking for more consistency and thinks that some teams may overlook them.

“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” Reynolds said. “I’m excited.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the player with the most goals scored last year. That player was graduate Kale Ward who scored 24 goals. Mark Cline scored the most goals of any player who is returning to the team this year.