Boys’ soccer focusing on attacking prowess and teamwork this year
Senior Victor Nunez-Saravia said the boys’ soccer team is forging ahead despite a record of 0 wins, 3 losses, and 4 ties, hoping to improve on last year’s final record of 4-10-4.
One strength of this year’s team is that they have an “attacking prowess” since the defense and the midfield stepped up. “The team looks more like a team this year instead of just individuals,” he said.
A weakness of the team, said Nunez-Saravia, is their negativity towards each other when things go wrong.
When interviewed in September, Nunez-Saravia was mourning an East Longmeadow loss but said he still hoped for some big wins. “I want to lead this team to something we haven’t tasted since 2016, which is a Western Mass title,” he said.
The starters on the team are striker Nunez-Saravia, goalie Sabir Douglas, right back Brian Weston, center back Finn Boerman, another center back Henry Lepak, left back Sammy Nunez-Saravia, midfield Danny Nunez-Saravia, midfield Alioun Sarr, midfield Ellis Rubin, left-wing Abdi Byl-Brann, and right-wing David Teixeira.
Anyone can try out as long as they have a valid physical approved by the school nurse. Teixeira, for example, tried out as a sophomore, having never played organized soccer, and he is on varsity as a junior. There is also a JVA team and a JVB team, so everyone has a fair chance to make a team.
The captains are Nunez-Saravia, Weston, and Sarr.
“Captains are chosen by the coach for their leadership on and off the field,” said Nunez-Saravia.
“We lead the warmups and practices and help organize team bonding events.”
They practice at the varsity field by the track. Occasionally they practice by the JV field which is adjacent to it.
“Every practice we review our game footage to improve our mental aspect of our game and review footage on other teams to know what we are up against,” said Nunez-Saravia. “When we go outside, we warm up to get our blood flowing, start touch base drills moving our feet to be quick with the ball, then we do scenario base drills to see what we should do when we are put in different situations. A lot of our workouts involve shooting and trying to beat our defender.”
One team they are looking to beat is Ludlow. “They have always been a tough team; they are definitely our division rivals,” he said. “Every game has been tough this year, and they have clawed their way to most of their ties.”
In past games, they did turn things around, which was positive. In the South Hadley and Belchertown games, they were down 2-0 and came back and made it 2-2. “This is a very hard thing to do and takes everyone on the team,” said Nunez-Saravia.
The coach is Matthew Travis. ”He is a PE teacher so he has a lot of experience teaching and working with kids,” said Nunez-Saravia. “He is very uplifting and gets on you for continuous mistakes made in a game. He helps you improve as a player on and off the field and he tells us to focus on our academics as well as our sport.”
They have team bonding dinners on Sundays and before away games they will have sandwiches. These things are funded through the fundraising the team has done.
All in all, soccer is a game that Nunez-Saravia looks forward to. “I love the thrill of scoring; it brings me a rush,” he said.
As Nunez-Saravia looks ahead to some big games, he said the best approach is one day at a time. “It’s going to start by winning the little games first,” he said.
