Troop Out 2019

Game 1 (1-0-0)

30 August, at Aquinas vs. St. James Academy (1-0)

The night began with the iconic march-in with a new twist in this Troop Out 2019. 

First, (after a classic Bob Scott original prayer) we were blessed with senior, Elise Handley, who has performed all over the place including KU Basketball, as she beautifully sang the National Anthem, following it with a halftime rendition of America the Beautiful. (Wow, catch a bit).

Tonight's intros included Steve reading a short blurb identifying the military service for each player's honoree whose name he was wearing on the back of his jersey. Pretty powerful. (PreGame)

Lisa Stoecklein headed up our parent group that helped BWhite pull off, yet another Troop Out, this one benefitting the Veterans' Community Project. I know we generated a couple of thousand for donation just from T-shirt sales, and fans were very generous in donations last night as well. So it was a very successful fundraising evening.

And our title sponsor, Family Leisure, had the boys outfitted so well to honor our vets. What a great event. 

And the boys improved upon the outcome from last year as they returned the Clevinger/Cobb trophy to Saint Thomas Aquinas, nabbing a 1-0 shutout (Trophy).

And it was the first match, yes, but the coaches did all feel pretty good about the performance, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Zayveon and Max debuted on the wings, and they were both in shutdown mode (And we got great minutes from both Muckerman and Anliker as well).  Farrar, Gabe, and DJ took care of the middle of the defense as we expected. And with Shae behind them, well; pretty stout.

We only scored the one goal, but overall we did seem to be generating some nice opportunities. We created 9 corners, for example. We had 6 of those in the second half where we were probably playing our best soccer. 

We have been awfully excited about our midfield with Kitts, Martin, and Welch starting, and Weinrich and DJ White joining that mix. B. named Drew Welch the BWhite Player of the Match—his play at the 6 just moves us dangerously forward as a team, and I don't how many times he tracked back after losing a ball to reclaim it. 

And as I previously mentioned we did generate 9 corners up top, and we did get off 13 shots. So we do think we have some goals coming.

And St. James is good. So, that makes our evaluation even better. They head to the Fat Cat next week. They play fiercely with talent dotting the field. They will win a lot of games this year, and we will be in a dogfight with them and Southwest to get into the final four. 

But this was an important first step tonight.

(PRIEST SPOTTING)

And we are so grateful to our parents and our school and to BWhite and St. James and their fans for all that they did to provide the boys with such an opportunity to play in a match of this atmosphere.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 5 (3) Corners: 3 (Parker 2, Welch)

Thunder: Shots: 1 (1) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 8 (3) Corners: 6 (Parker 3, Eames, Kanakares, Kitts)

28:41 Stoecklein (Farrar lofts the long deadball)

Thunder: Shots: 4 (1) Corners: 1

Player Interviews after the match

Blue-Gold 2019

Game 0

28 August, Wednesday vs. JV and JV+Varisty (5-0)

We have changed how we do Blue/Gold over the last few years, hoping to get us some better competition, hoping to achieve a little bit better preparation for that first match. 

So our starters play the JV starters for 15; then they play our non-starters plus 3 of the best JV players for 15. We rotate our players, and then we do the same thing in the second half. In between those 15-minute segments, the JV's group plays the C-team.

We cashed a goal each of the two segments against the JV, and although we did not score against the non-starters plus the best of the JV the first time around, we did cash 3 goals the final 15. So pretty good.

And it did look as if we were getting the kinks out. Our midfield play got better each shift, and that's the group that will make us go.

Parker debuted at the "9," and he scored a goal each shift against the JV before just icing in our final shift—and as I said, we cashed three goals that shift as freshman, Ethan Young, did a nice job replacing Parker at the "9."

The JV did cash 6 goals against the C-team as Nen Matlock looks like a whole-lot-of-trouble for some defenses this season. 

Our C-team guys really combined well. We think they are going to be pretty darn good this year.  

We did think that Zayveon stood out defensively defending our starting varsity front line, especially during that shift that ended up holding the starting varsity scoreless for fifteen minutes.

Parker picks up two goals; Konnesky logs a goal and two assists; Young nabs two assists; Barrett scored a goal and tallied an assist, and Muck cashed one. (Kanakares did earn us a couple of corners—the first we scored on.)

And the varsity defense, as Captain Mitchell suggested before the match, held all comers at bay.

Goals:

36:26 Stoeckline (Kitts bends the right-footed corner to mid-post)

Second Half:

34:47 Stoecklein (Young checks down, holds, then finds Parker through)

13:42 Konnesky (Young bounces a ball off the keeper)

8:41 Kitts (Konnesky t's it through the box)

5:40 Muckerman (Konnesky squares Muckerman who is up from the back)

PreSeason Look

We graduated a great senior class last season as we send away Evan Neely, PJ Garcia, Jack Mason, Joey Caragher, Matthew Connor, Matthew Carta, Esteban Arias, Jacob Vance, Jacob Colling, Reid Howard, and Christian Consuegra—that’s a starting line-up. It reminds me of the class of 1993 that left us with just 4 returning letter-winners.  And 1994 did not turn out too badly as those four were stars, and they brought our younger players into the fold.

We will provide some senior star power all right, with Shae Wirt (captain) in goal (on the Top Drawer preseason All American Watch) (sophomore, Carter Diggs, will back him up) and Parker Stoecklein (captain) back and moving up to the “9.” Parker was a finalist for the All State Insurance All American game as a junior and is on every preseason All-State Poll.

But we expect big seasons from senior centerback Gabe Kraft (captain) and senior center midfielder, Jack Martin. And seniors John Anliker and Brennan Schroeder should see plenty of time on the field as well, John on the backline and Brennan up top on the wing.

The key to 1994 was the seniors' ability to make the underclass feel welcome and important. Summer and tryouts have shown a lot of that happening, with this talented underclass performing very well.

It starts with junior and two-time varsity letter-winner, team captain, Mitchell Farrar. He will be starting at centerback with Gabe Kraft. He returns as an All-State player from last year—and on all watchlists this year.

The rest of the backline will come from a very talented 4-some. Some of them will start but all of them will play a lot, and play well. Zayveon Russell and Max Bryson, both juniors, and Jacob Muckerman, a sophomore all bring that offensive burst we will be looking for out of our wingback position and all are so solid on defense. We also have DJ White who will play some centerback.

Our midfield should be awfully strong:  It will start with Jack Martin (Josh Lents’ Tryout Award Winner) at the “8,” but ODP region-team player, junior Andrew Welch will anchor that position out of the “6.” He is so dynamic at the 6 that we expect our ball movement to raise a few eyes.  Barrett Kitts (Josh Lents’ Tryout Award Winner), just a freshman, but a former Sporting Juniors’ player looks to start at the “10.” 

We will see a lot of junior DJ White in that midfield mix and in the centerback mix. We expect a big season from him. Also, we will debut our first shared player with Aquinas football, Charlie Weinrich. He will spell Welch at the “6,” and put up some 45-yard field goals on Friday.

Scoring has been one of our weaknesses in recent seasons. We expect that moving one of our leading scorers of last year to the “9,” (Parker) will give that stat a boost. We also are excited about wings and what they will bring to the width of the field—all are new to the varsity. Two juniors, Owen Kanakares (Josh Lents’ Tryout Award Winner), and Caden Eames will not only bring pace with a high soccer IQ, but they will bring a connection to some of our great teams from the past as both are relatives of Aquinas greats like Matt Blething and the Latz brothers, and the Gorczyca’s.

We will look for big minutes at the wing from sophomore (Josh Lents’ Tryout Award Winner), Luke Konnesky as well. And Brennan Schroeder will get time wide as well. We also know, despite the fact that he is coming back from an injury back in the Spring, we should see Arquez Morissette this year as well.

We are excited about some freshman who should see some varsity minutes up top some this year as well. Ethan Young, Sebastian Tarboda and Nen Matlock all showed us quite a bit during tryout week, along with this summer.

But of course, we expect our biggest boost in scoring to come from the execution of our set-pieces. This has always been a staple of Aquinas soccer. Deadballs should be one of our strengths this season—and the varsity captains have made scoring on 15 corners a team goal.

Coach Ewing will be in the 32nd and last year teaching at Saint Thomas Aquinas. Coach Hammons is in his 26th, BWhite in his 16th—so we have a lot of tradition in place. Juan Luengo will assist the varsity this season as well, as he spends his 6th season at STA.

Coach Ragsdale will head up the JV for his second season, his seventh at Saint Thomas Aquinas. Caleb Mitchell and Eric Ewing return for their 2nd year running our C-team.

EKL should be a bear as usual.  This league has claimed almost all of the soccer titles in the last five years, and this year looks the same. Bishop Miege and BV Southwest are both ranked in the Top 5 in Kansas, and we know from summer that BV West, St. James (final 4 last year) and BV Northwest should be strong.

We travel again to Iowa, landing once again in Bracket A with some of the best teams in the country, like two-time defending Illinois State Champ and last year’s #2 in the nation, Naperville North. Miege is in the same bracket.

The 810 Classic pits us once again against Dodge City this year. They are always good and almost always part of the 6A final 4.

We all know the key to the season is 5A State, and we also know that only two of 3 great teams will get out of the Northeast side of the bracket and get to go to Spring Hill for the final 4.  EKL powers St. James, BV Southwest and us will battle it out for those two spots. . . but that’s a long way down the line . . . let’s enjoy this season that finishes off this decade. I pray we do.