With their season fully underway, the Southern Lehigh High School boys’ soccer team has had many obstacles to overcome. The Spartans faced a difficult transition into this season with the loss of 11 graduates who brought experience and leadership to the team. With a Colonial League record of 7–3, the players are still optimistic about the future of their season and confident that the atmosphere of the team will remain strong through their perseverance.
“I would say that the atmosphere has changed, but change can be a positive thing,” senior co-captain Sidney Rosenberg said. “Although we lost some very talented players, the emergence of younger, new players has helped us overcome this. Hard work in practice and in games as well as a focus on our mentality is setting us in the right direction for success in the rest of the regular season and postseason.”
Younger players and new captains have had to step up to new responsibilities in order to fill the gap, lead the team, and push through challenges. Additionally, coaches implemented several changes to the team’s environment in order to maintain success.
“Luckily, we’ve had some exceptional captains step up,” junior Grayson Campagna said. “And we all feel like the team is tightly bound together. However, we lost a lot of seniors from last year and they were really good players, so there are definitely adjustments that need to be made.”
The captains appreciate the excitement and readiness of their teammates who have stepped up.
“We did gain a couple new players with underclassmen moving up, such as [sophomores] Trent Phillips and Micah Tirado,” senior co-captain Samuel Magallanes said. “We’ve also added new players through freshmen and new students to our school district who are showing their support for the team and are working hard.”
Even with all these changes that have been made, it could’ve been easy for the team to be discouraged, but the team bond seems to be as strong as ever. This shows how much the players care for their peers and their sport.
“[Southern Lehigh] soccer is the best program I’ve ever been a part of in terms of the culture we maintain on the team. When you make the team every year, you get to be a part of not just a sports team, but a family,” senior co-captain Noah Jellison said. “We have former high school players come back to watch our games who have families of their own. It’s my favorite program at Southern Lehigh by far, and that’s thanks to the amazing coaching staff and players we have on the team.”
