Warrenton soccer coach John Schulte is counting on senior leadership to be a key factor in the Warriors’ success this season.
Warrenton has six seniors on the roster this season. Schulte is counting on the seniors to produce on the field and help the underclassmen acclimate to high school soccer at the varsity level. All six seniors on the varsity roster are all really decent soccer players.
“They’re seniors. They’re older. They’ve been in system for a while,” Schulte said. “They’re going to really help those younger kids to push them along and teach them what to do and get those younger kids to rise up. That’s something we haven’t really had a whole bunch of in the last couple years. Just the leadership with the seniors is something we’re really looking forward to this year to really help those younger kids. And I think they’re going to do an awesome job.”
Junior Bryan Guerrero is among the top players returning to the Warriors this season. Guerrero finished tied for the team lead with eight goals last season and finished first on the team with 23 points. He also led the team with seven assists.
Schulte expects seven underclassmen, including five freshmen, to play roles for the Warriors this season. Schulte dedicated a lot of time in early practices preparing underclassmen for the beginning of the regular season.
“The biggest thing with that is with having a bunch of freshmen and sophomores is kind of starting over again this year,” Schulte said last week. “The last couple days, all we’ve really been doing is going over our formations and how we’re playing offensively and defensively. Just kind of really getting those seven, eight kids who aren’t familiar with it, familiar with it so they’re back on par with the upperclassmen.”
With the amount of time Schulte has dedicated to helping the players get up to speed with the system, they were not able to do as much conditioning as Schulte would have preferred. The focus has been more on how to play efficiently in the system. The players did build up their fitness through drills during practice.
“We’re three weeks in before they really get their legs under them and they can go out there and they’re still giving everything they’ve got the last 10 minutes of the game,” Schulte said. “Just because it is such a long game. Lots of running.”
Schulte hopes the Warriors are balanced with quality play on offense and defense. A great defense really helps the offense, he said. He hopes the Warriors can put everything together by midseason. Overall, Schulte hopes to see the Warriors compete in every game.
“I’m always a believer that if we do those things that we’re supposed to, all the small things, that we get into the spots we’re supposed to, we’ll be in most games and we’ll do really well,” Schulte said. “We just need to make sure that we’re doing those things all the time. And if we do, good things are going to happen for us.”
The Warriors will kick off their regular season schedule with a home game against Missouri Military Academy. The game is slated to be played at 5 p.m. Aug. 30.