Under the new leadership of Victoria Harris, the Wright City boys soccer team is building a new team culture – one centered on encouragement and development.
“We want to have …
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Under the new leadership of Victoria Harris, the Wright City boys soccer team is building a new team culture – one centered on encouragement and development.
“We want to have criticism, but in a constructive way where we’re uplifting each other while also focusing on building the player’s technical abilities. We definitely just want to build that positive culture,” Harris said.
The Wildcats are embracing a clean slate as they return to the field this fall. With a balanced mix of returning players and new faces, Harris is eager to see how her team stacks up.
“We have some young talent coming in, so there will be some new opportunities to get new views on the field,” midfielder Andrew Staats said.
Harris highlighted freshmen Marcos Jacinto Jose, Zach Frey-Collins and Brandon Lopez Luna as promising additions, while Jonathan Windmann, Staats, Thomas Wilgus and Hunter Shoults have been emerging as strong leaders.
“They’ve definitely been leaders for us out on the field,” Harris said.
Harris added that Windmann will be key in leading the team’s offensive attack.
“I just want to keep getting better and try to help my team be the best that we can be,” Windmann said. “I feel like we’re going to be better than last season, so we want to improve on things we might have done bad in a game and keep getting better.”
Windmann believes this team will perform better due to the leadership of Harris, the solid team structure and chemistry.
“We gel a lot better this year,” Windmann said. Staats agreed, adding, “No one’s arguing or yelling at each other and it’s a lot more controlled.”
In practice, Harris has been implementing more technical-based drills which are starting to pay off.
“The technical ability has been good and we’ve been able to knock the ball around quite a bit,” Harris said. “We have a couple players that can take some decent shots and our possession has looked really well.”
Harris acknowledged that last season was disappointing for the team as it only won four games, but she’s optimistic about this year’s team.
“I know some of them have never played, so I want us to learn and grow as a team together – and I would love to win some more games,” Harris said.
Wright City did graduate seven players, including goalkeeper Drew Elsenrath and majority of their back line.
“AJ (Wilber) will be sliding for us in goal. He didn’t play last year since we had that solid keeper, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far,” Harris said.
Defensively, Wright City is still evaluating options.
“A lot of our players want to play offense, so we’re trying to fill in those gaps on the back line,” Harris said. “With the jamboree coming up, we can move players in and out and see who fits best in those positions.”
Wright City will start its season at 4 p.m. on Sept. 2 in a road game against Winfield.
