Soccer is bringing passion, and charisma into Hastings High School. The popularity of boys soccer is growing rapidly with each increasing year of level of success.
With Daniel Hawker having one season under his belt, he begins to plan for the offseason.“My goals for this indoor / off-season are to get a large number of students out playing enjoying soccer, then hoping then to see them return for tryouts in the spring,” boys head coach Daniel Hawker said. “The more you play the better you get. My hope is that these open gym sessions will help some of our younger players get used to the physicality and intensity of varsity high school soccer,” Hawker said.
This upcoming year the boys team lost a lot of leadership and key players. Junior midfielder Zuriel Espinoza’s thinks off season workouts are a good idea.
“I am worried about this year because we lost a lot of key players, but if we work hard this indoor/offseason, then I expect us to be a better team by working together more as unit to get the job done,” Espinoza said.
Veteran defenders have identified the areas of play that need people to step in fill the
missing roles for the off season.
“The empty spots in the back are a concern for me, we need players to step up and take over the roles of our graduated players, junior Alex Pedroza said.
Coach Hawker feels the need to work on attitude and discipline, two major areas of the team’s aspects.
“Last year, lacking in these two areas cost us both in the regular season and at the state tournament. My hope is that losing in the opening round of state last season and throwing away games we should have won, will teach us that we must maintain focus, discipline, and attitude in everything we do,” Hawker said.
Espinoza has one main goal for this indoor/offseason.
“I want to be in tip top shape so that means conditioning. I am setting a goal for myself to run at least one mile a day,”Espinoza said.
Hawker said there plenty of positives to build around.
“Last year our greatest strength was our technical ability. We had a lot of individuals that
were very skilled on the ball. With that said, on occasion that limited our ability to play as a team. I believe that this season we will work together more as a team and will see
better results. We have a great staff and a quality group of younger players. I believe
that if we can come together, we can look forward to yet another successful season.”
Things are looking very optimistic for the boys, and hopefully they put back charisma and passion in the school.
