As the school day ends, academics are set aside and athletes go to sharpen their skills, condition, and mindset. The Cubs soccer team has a new coach and a fresh season ahead of them this spring.
“It’s a passion of mine,” said new head coach Tyler Huggins, “I just enjoy, kind of imparting the things that I find to be important about life through a sport that I love.”
Players come to the field to warm up and practice their dribbling and shots, driven by their team chemistry and friends.
“I really like soccer because the team’s close, and it’s a good team sport, and it’s just awesome. I love it,” said Wyatt Tyra, a forward on the varsity team.
Tyra means business. He has been playing the sport for over seven years now and strives for big achievements. Although he wants to score big goals, he also wants to focus on growth individually and collaboratively on the pitch.
“It’s just making sure we build positive. So, it doesn’t mean that we go from how the team did last year, which was bottom of the league to winning the championship, but it does mean that there’s measurable improvements to what we had last year,” stated Huggins.
Huggins has been coaching ever since he was 14, and had a love for the sport ever since, now coaching for the boys and girls team. Huggins wants to focus on baby steps, rather than focusing on statistics, as well as building “creative leaders,” players who can have fun with the ball and be confident on the pitch.
“I never really got introduced to other sports growing up, so soccer was just kind of there,” said Xavier Ramos, a junior playing on the varsity team. “My mom put me into it, just because I was shy when I was younger.”
Ramos just recently came back competitively to high school. He wants to just have fun with his boys and make sure he isn’t another cone on the pitch. He finds that teamwork will always come with its criticisms, and you just have to learn from it. Playing soccer has helped develop his confidence in a sense, knowing how or when to bounce back from mistakes.
“That’s why I do it, because one, it’s something I enjoy, and two, it just keeps me healthy,” Ramos claims, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
While these players have their minds on the ball, soccer often reminds these young talents that it is important to stay on top of real life, making sure they can prioritize important things at stake.
“You can treat it like a job. Coaches, we like to stress that if you’re not there, what would your boss say if you were gone from work without telling them?” Coach Willard Boyd said.
Boyd who has been coaching since 1984, apart from having fun, has one goal in mind when coaching and that is to ultimately be the person who sets the bar, especially when it comes to academics, driving student-athletes to take accountability.
“Prioritize what’s actually important, instead of going to class and just playing games on the computer,” exclaimed Ramos. “What’s the point of coming to school if you’re just going to play games all day?”
One aspect of being a student-athlete is the school-life balance, which Ramos claims to be simple, as long as you’re able to power through, since it will follow you all your life.
“Soccer is a really fun sport. It can be challenging because it’s a lot of footwork and a lot of coordination” said Neri Linares.
Linares is a sophomore on the junior varsity team, who has been playing since seventh grade. Soccer is full of being coordinated and adapting to the field: one second it’ll be peaceful and then the next second, it’s chaos.
“I didn’t pay attention to who I was defending, and they went up and scored twice on me,” said Ramos, “but after that, I just let it off, didn’t think too much of it, and just won the ball back.”
The soccer team has been flourishing. Although they lost their season opener against non-conference team Jacksonville, it gave the boys a lesson in working together. This lesson has resulted in the team bond growing, keeping their momentum going against tough opponents. The team’s conference record currently stands at five wins, one loss, and two ties.