The Sault High Blue Devils Varsity Soccer Team started their season on Monday with tryouts, as the MHSAA fall sports calendar officially started. The squad has a few quick days to prepare, as their first game of the season is at Charlevoix on Friday afternoon. With fourteen returning players, led by team captains seniors Nick Wood, Jordan Doghmi and Noah Weber and Junior Cam Gagnon, Head Coach Alan MacArthur is looking forward to another good season. Last year the team finished with a 4-13 record, with MacArthur noting “several of those losses were one-goal games.” This season, the team will again travel and play against teams from across the Upper Peninsula, and put quite a few miles in all over Northern Lower Michigan as well. “I consider us an at large team because we aren’t in a conference, so we play anyone. We will go as far west as Houghton and as far south as Cadillac and Oscoda to play.”
Despite the number of returning players, this is still considered a young team. “As usual we will be going into this year as one of the youngest and least experienced Varsity soccer teams in the state. We don’t have a JV or Freshman soccer program so the newer players’ learning curve at the Varsity level is limited. It’s about getting the new players experience and confidence in a game atmosphere. We work hard at practice but it’s the games that we learn what we have to do to compete against those more experienced squads.” The current Blue Devils roster consists of three players that will be in their fourth year of high school soccer experience, three players that will be in their third year of high school soccer experience, eight players that will be in their second year of high school soccer experience, and six players that will be in their first year of high school soccer. “To put that into perspective there are 11 players for each team on the field. At any given time half of the Sault team could be on the field with players of one year of game experience or even zero varsity level game experience.”
With Ryan Hill stepping in as Assistant Coach, MacArthur is confident the team will grow and build confidence as the season progresses. “I have no doubt with this young squad that we will hit our stride, but it might just take some time to get to that point. We need to be patient, it will fall into place and be a good year.”
The home opener will be against Alpena on August 22 at 4:00 at AJ VanCitter’s Field. The full schedule for the season can be found on the school’s athletic page on their website, saultschools.org.
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