Photo Credits to Haley Tanzi

Q: What was the team’s record for the season? 

A: We finished the regular season 4-6

Q: How do teams qualify for the playoffs?

A: In District Six, and that’s what we’re in, you can put your team in no matter what. This year, there’s only three teams, so it was us, Mifflin County and State College.

Q: How do playoffs work? 

A: So, for ours, whoever’s in first place at the end in terms of total points gets a bye, and the second and third place teams play to see who will reach the district six championship. And then, if you win the District Six Championship, you move onto the state playoffs.

Q: What were the results of the first playoff game?

A: We won 26-8. We beat Mifflin County, and now we get a chance to play State College.

Q: What do you find to be most important for teams that want to make it to the playoffs?

A: We play in the Mid Penn Conference in the regular season, and then we’re allowed to come back for our playoffs. Obviously, we want to be playing our best football at the end of the year, and hopefully that’s what we’re doing, and we have a chance now to go play in the District Championship.

Q: What are some of the struggles that the team faced this year? How did you overcome them? 

A: You struggle with injury and staying healthy just because of how physical football is. You have kids that get hurt, and you need other kids to step in. We’ve, fortunately, had a good group of kids so that whenever someone’s down, we’re here to pick them up. That’s probably the biggest struggle because when kids get hurt, you have to mix and match players in different spaces.

Q: Are there any major highlights from this season? 

A: We had our first 1000 yard rusher, Bron Mosley. He rushed for over 1000 yards this year. Other than those accolades, we don’t pay a whole lot of attention to that.

Q: Do you think there was anything different this year from years that the team didn’t make it to playoffs? 

A: Fortunately, in the five years that I’ve been here, we only didn’t go to the playoffs one year. That was my first year, and we were 1-9, but year in and year out, our conference is really, really good. For us to make it to the playoffs with the record that we have, we’re really proud of our kids.

Q: Were there any players that really stood out this year?

A: Again, Bron and the way he ran the football, our offensive line and we played really well as a whole group defensively. We don’t really look a whole lot into anything individually, though, we’re looking more like the team as a whole.

Q: What advice would you give to coaches who wish to get their teams to the playoffs? 

A: I think just trying to stay as consistent as you can. Keep it simple for the kids that are playing. I think whenever kids don’t have to think and they can just react, they play a lot better and faster. Those are the big things that we stress.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to any athlete? 

A: Be there every day. I think that being present and not missing any time is really one of the biggest things. That means that your coaches can count on you, you can be accountable for everything that’s expected of you and it gives you the best chance to play and win. 

Photo Credits to Aaliyah McGee

Q: What was the team’s record for this season?

A: We were 13-5 this year.

Q: How do teams qualify for the playoffs?

A: In our world, it’s an open tournament. For soccer, it’s typically based on our record if we’re actually going to enter. There’s only four teams available in our region at our size of classification. We’re listed as 4A, and the way they determine that is basically a population of male students from ninth grade up in our district. Smaller schools, it’s listed as single A, there might only be like 12 teams, so not all of them qualify. Basically, ours is like an open invite, and we, having a successful year leading up to the playoffs, obviously decided to get in. We qualified as the two seed because State College had a great run this year. They actually went undefeated until the last game of the season, so they were the one seed because it’s based on a point system. So, you get three points for a win, plus the value of the other points, which is determined by the size of the school. For example, if you win a match against the 4A team, it’s worth seven points, if it’s a 3A team, it’s worth six points and so on.

Q: How do playoffs work?

A: Basically, it is only those teams at that level are actually playoff teams, so technically in boys’ and girls’ soccer, there are eight District champions for the boys’ side and the girls’ side. If you visit the PIAA website, it’ll give you what they call the “championship brackets.” Then, you can see what schools played against what other schools. In the smaller divisions, there’s a lot of teams, so they have like a quarterfinal, semifinal and then a final match. Whereas we just go right into, in our case, we had to do the play in game. There was only a two seed and a three seed and then the winner of that played State College.

Q: What were the results of the first playoff game? 

A: We are done entirely. Unfortunately, we lost in that play in game 1-0 against Central Mountain.

Q: What do you find to be most important for teams that want to make it to the playoffs?

A: I think consistency and continuing to grow. Growth over the course of the season is huge. We obviously want to be qualifying by earning your way in there with a solid record. And, you want to be playing well at that point in the year, which is mid to late October.

Q: What are some of the struggles that the team faced this year? How did you overcome them? 

A: We had a really good season. I think just a lot of newcomers coming to varsity was a challenge, and they responded very well to that. That’s every year though. You have the turnover with the seniors graduating. But, if you look across the board at our record, we started off the season really, really well. We were 7-1 at one point. We only dropped one game to Central Mountain in the first eight. I feel like early on, we were great. Our struggles were kind of just being spotty. It was like win streak, loss, win streak, loss, win streak, and then, unfortunately, we ended the season with a loss to Central Mountain. It’s all about that last game. You’ve got to keep putting Ws up to keep the game going, and there’s only one team in the state that’s ending their season with a win and everybody else just loses. So, you just want to keep putting those Ws out.

Q: Are there any major highlights from this season? 

A: Obviously, our overall record is great. I mean, 13-5. We beat some teams that beat us last year. For example, last season we lost to Selinsgrove, and we beat them away this year. A game that they beat us at home pretty handily last year. We played a really tough game against Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which is a tough team. We lost 3-2, but it was a great effort. Overall, I feel like all of those wins are always highlights. We won as a team, and anytime you can get out on the field and take a W is a highlight to me. A lot of team play is a highlight as well. We had standout players, but also everyone was really effective that was on the field.

Q: Do you think there was anything different this year from years that the team didn’t make it to playoffs? 

A: Consistently, I think that we’ve been a good program through the years. I think this year is probably one of our biggest kudos that was really an improvement over the past years is that we were very confident playing back to our goalies feet and kind of playing confidently out of the back using the defenders to start our attack. Instead of trying to build from the midfield up, it was  a back to front scheme that worked well. It showed that everybody on the team adds value, and they were a big key component in keeping the ball and possessing the ball. Some teams don’t do that at all, they use their defenses just to clear the ball out. We use our defense to relieve pressure. We play back on our goalie to relieve pressure. The faster you do that, the faster the other team is just chasing and getting tired and their forwards are running, and that’s the best way to win. We always say let the ball run instead of us. The more they’re running and the ball is doing and we’re letting the ball do the running for our possession, the better off our chances are in a game.

Q: Were there any players that really stood out this year?

A: Probably one of the biggest things is our captains. They’re all solid leaders. I mean, everybody played a key role on this team, our captains were just looked upon to be good role models and motivate players, and we were a very cohesive group. We’re very tight knit, we got along really well. To me, it’s a team game. I love individual achievements, but at the same time, part of their achievement is related to the teammates’ efforts as well. So, you could say with a forward, well somebody passed them that ball, that’s why they scored those goals. Or, defense helps goalies with goals against average. Things like that. It’s really across the board. All of those wins are due to everybody that’s playing.

Q: What advice would you give to coaches that wish to get their teams to the playoffs? 

A: I think it just goes back to the adage of you just always have to consistently work. Work makes up for a lot of flaws and errors. Time at your craft is going to be a great equalizer. Player development is obviously going to be really important. You can’t get better at this game by doing anything other than playing and getting more experience and putting that time in. I am a firm believer that hard work is going to breed results. That’s kind of been my mindset as a coach, and it always has been. Like, let’s be fit, let’s be mentally strong and let’s outwork other teams and take care of the variables.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to any athlete? 

A: Be ready to be a sponge and work hard and learn to never be satisfied. Celebrate your victories. Celebrate the things that are the fruits of your labor, but never be satisfied with enough. There’s always more that you can attain, there’s always more goals you can set. Just like coaches, you can always get better. I feel like athletes can always become better players. So my advice is never stop.