Boys Soccer Team Looks Forward To Another Great Season

Sports

Boys Soccer Team Looks Forward To Another Great Season

Jason Franks- September 23, 2011

GHHS has a tough season ahead of them.

There have been several great seasons that are now under the GHHS boy's soccer belt. However, they have a tough season ahead of them in their upcoming season( With Bishop Hartley, Columbus Academy, Worthington Christian, Canal Winchester and possibly the toughest team Grandview is going to face: Bishop Watterson).

The boy’s soccer team will be strong this year due its many returning starters: Ben Mathes, Connor Phillips, Brendan Cox, Dakota Williams, Ben Farynowski. Many of the players listed have been playing on varsity since their freshman year so they all have the talent to uphold the standards of Grandview varsity soccer.

“To be successful you need a combination of dedication, practice, teamwork, communication and confidence,” said Farynowski who’s been playing keeper for 11 years and will be starting at keeper for his second year on the varsity team.

“My plan to win is to continue to push the team to their limits so we can be prepared for any hard team we play” he says, “ We definitely are not the most skilled team but definitely the best conditioned team in our league.

Our Grandview soccer team has won the league the past 11 years and wants to continue the tradition. Last year the boy’s soccer Bobcats made history by going 14-0-2 to complete an undefeated season for the first time in Grandview history. On top of being undefeated they beat Worthington Christian for the first time since 2004.

A big reason Grandview is so successful is the constant flow of athletes participating all the way from Grandview's elementary schools up through the high school. These players all got involved at an early age by joining travel teams. Being on a travel team forces the athlete to have leadership and a head start on the opponents.

The most popular travel team Grandview soccer athletes participate in is Santos. Santos starts at age 5 and and is based in Upper Arlington so the drive is close and easy to get to practices and back. The athletes also participate in other clubs such as Crew Jr’s, WASA Global and the UA Eagles.

Senior striker Dakota Williams has been playing soccer since he was five years old. “Since I’ve been playing so long I like it, I like the sport, I guess you could say its in my blood, but not really” Dakota said. He added “I like that Grandview is good at (soccer), but I hate that Proffesionals complain and dive so much because its embarrassing to them and the people watching.”

Maybe a strong element to Grandview’s success is the strong leadership on and off the field. Some of the main leaders of the team include senior Sam Thomas and senior Ben Mathes. With strong leadership comes big responsibility like running “captain” practices and motivating the team to do their best on and off the field. A captain’s practice is when the coaching staff is unavailable, so the team leaders gather the team to have an unofficial practice.

“During captains practices we work very hard on a variety of skills and conditioning that will give us a jump start on the season. Even though these practices are unofficial they are just as hard and challenging as a practice with the coaching staff. Also this gives us a chance to see the kind of skill that the underclassman bring to the table and see what we have to work with,” said Farynowski

One useful aspect the team has to their advantage is the very experienced, talented and skilled coaching staff. The head coach Brian Neidenthal has been coaching for 11 years. His experience consisted of a life long commitment to the game of soccer and he played midfield at LIFE University in Georgia.

Since Coach Neidenthal has been coaching here at Grandview, the bobcats have won the league every year.

Coach Kerry Thompson (the goalie coach) is also a very valued member of the coaching staff. He played for The Ohio State University, coming straight out of Dublin High School. In college he started all four years and won multiple Big Ten Championships for the Buckeyes.

After he graduated he coached for a small college soccer team while starting his career outside of soccer. Recently he and his wife had a child and decided to settle down in Columbus and started to coach for Grandview Heights.

With a tough season ahead Grandview answers with Great coaching perfect and a strong nucleus of players to make for a promising year for the G.H.H.S Bobcat soccer team.