Soccer is a sport where the ball is in constant motion and the ebb and flow of the game rolls as inconsistently as a ball on rocks. Every movement of every player eventually becomes a catalyst to a game-winning goal or a full-time whistle. Much like the game of soccer itself, a team’s staff will change depending on the team’s needs. This season Spartan boys soccer experienced a change in one of the most crucial positions, that of the head coach.

After twelve seasons with the Spartans, former head coach Terry Neville has stepped down from his role; however, he will remain as an assistant coach. Coach Neville has a combined record of 269-115-37, including seven seasons at Palisades, and five with Southern Lehigh. Over that time he has won five district titles with the Spartans.

Taking his place will be former assistant coach, Mark Evans who has been with the team for several years now. Evans is not new to the head-coaching scene. In 2012 when Neville had a heart attack, Evans fluidly took over the lead role for the remainder of the season, helping the Spartans to a Colonial League title. The current seniors were freshmen that year, so this made Evans’ recent conversion from assistant to head coach slightly easier.

Despite this change, many of the other facets of the team have stayed the same.

“Coach Neville and I had a very similar soccer philosophy, so there have not been many major changes to the team.” Coach Evans said.

Despite taking a backseat as assistant coach, Neville played a very crucial role in the transition, leading to an easy change in coaching personnel.

“Coach Neville is such a great person; he understands soccer, and he understands the role of assistant coach, and he doesn’t overstep his boundaries,” Coach Evans said. “So I think the team has transitioned well to recognizing me as head coach.”

While the system hasn’t changed, the starting lineup has. The Spartans only returned four starters from last year’s district champion team, presenting an early-season challenge.

“We have lots of seniors, juniors, and even sophomores stepping up into leadership roles,” senior Captain Jacob Cassel said. “There are lot of good players stepping up into positions and getting used to the program.”

Coach Evans echoes this sentiment.

“The players that we had expected to be leaders have been leaders,” he said. “It’s been great to see those type of players step up into the leadership roles and play at a higher level than they did last year.”

Despite the coaching change, the team has not taken a step back in its quest for dominance of the valley. Last year the team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Moravian and their team captain Jack Cambridge, who defeated the Spartans in penalty kicks in the Colonial League title game last year. While this would have set many other teams back, the Spartans rebounded and ended up winning the District XI title.

This year the team’s eyes lie on the elusive Colonial League crown.

“[The defeat] emboldened them to attempt to win the league again,” Coach Evans said. “I think that loss was hard for them. But they recovered very well.”  

The players and their new head coach share the same goal: “play our best every game, win the league, and then move on to districts” sophomore standout Alex Milios said.

Coach Evans has the Spartans on track to reaching their goals. As of September 25th the Spartans tied with Salisbury for third in the Colonial League behind only Northwestern and rival Moravian.

“I don’t think we’re more skilled than the team we had last year, but I believe this team is very hard working, they have a great team chemistry, a desire to play our system,” Coach Evans said, “and if they continue to play our system and with those qualities they will have a lot of success.”