Although the beginning of the season started rough, “It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish,” Soccer Captain Senior Brandon Reyes said.
“To the boys’ credit, they’re showing up every day, working hard. They’re showing belief. Hopefully, we can turn it around soon,” Coach Falinski said. The season started off wobbly, with their current record being zero wins and 12 losses.
Because of this rocky start to the season, the boys hope to “make an upset” in the playoffs or possibly to do well in the post-season. The boys know they will be playing the underdog this season, but they stated their acceptance of this moniker.
One thing the team is proud of is their ability to seemingly forget all of the negatives of prior games, allowing them to focus on the game at hand.
“We should have a memory like a goldfish,” Senior Olivier Piasecki, the team’s goalie, said. He further explained that as long as they forgive and forget and try their hardest, they’ll do well.
There is a reason the Mustangs’ performance is poor, though.
Reyes attributes the team’s shortcomings and misplays to communication, or lack thereof. He continued that they need to communicate to patch up errors in their play. “It’s always easier to fix one mistake than 11 mistakes.”
“We can’t rely on one person to do the job. Everyone needs to do their job to succeed,” Piasecki remarked.
The coach and players also wanted to give advice on how to improve your play.
“Play. As much as you can. You have to spend some time with the ball and yourself and get comfortable with it, especially if you’re just starting out,” Coach Falinski remarked.
“Exercising on your own, [and] make sure you’re eating healthy [is important]. Even if you go to training, that’s not enough. You need to do stuff on your own and you can’t just rely on the training your coaches gave you,” Piasecki added. He further explained that there can be notable improvement when making strides to improve both on and off the field opposed to just working during allotted practice sessions.
Hopefully, the Mustangs can turn their dry spell around and prove to not just other high schools, but to us that they’re a team that puts in the effort and practice to do superbly.
