The Golden Eagles suffered from disappointment as the men’s soccer team came to an early close. Prior to the season’s beginning, a lot of change took place to ensure a great season. Those changes, however, may have been a little much to take on all at once.

The team started the season off really optimistically said junior varsity player Aaron Musser. The whole team went to Montana for pre-season training. The JV and varsity team practiced together all the time. There were a lot of new players and a lot of potential.

The pre-season started off with two consecutive wins, but the road got rough as time went on.

“We had a huge five game losing streak and that put a damper on our confidence,” Musser said.

Halfway through the season, players were still being switched up in their positions. Two midfielders were moved back to defense.

“It was definitely a rebuilding time,” Musser said, “but in terms of attitude, we were trying to figure out what worked.”

Coach Bell brought in many new players and new coaching staff. With nearly 40 soccer players in all, between the JV and varsity teams, over half were freshman players. On top of that there was an increase after last year from two coaches to six. They were all coaches with experience in different specific areas.

“Coach called us the ‘Blue Collar team,’” said Musser. “If we were going to win then we’d have to work our butts off.”

“I think he really did everything possible to instill a lot of positive new changes,” Musser said. “He believed that we could have performed better than what we did and that was what was really frustrating to him.”

Coach handed each of the players a workout packet for next season and has said whoever doesn’t follow it “to the T” will not be playing on the team next year.

The men’s soccer team ended with a an overall season record of 5-11-2 and a 3-7-2 record in the WHAC.