The QHHS 23-24 boys soccer team has had less than an ideal start to their season. This season, they are currently 0-2-2 in Golden League and overall are 0-4-2. Out of their six games played, they have only found the back of the net on three occasions, with Omar Flores scoring once against Paraclete, Brandon Mossman scoring one against Lancaster, and Rapaheal Placesnica scoring against Eastside to secure a tie.
The team saw a few significant changes, including having a new coach and losing most of the team from last season. The CIF team from last season was a very senior-heavy squad. Most of them played high school together all four years, and a few were on the same club teams, making it easy to play with each other because many of them followed the same playing style and played with each other year-round. Many seniors from last season were also key players in the team’s successful CIF run.
This season, the team has seen a few changes from years prior. The group labeled this season a “rebuild season,” Starting practically from scratch with only a few returning varsity players. The team has also been practicing Monday through Saturday to work on as many things as possible. We have seen multiple changes in the lineup and starting 11, as well as the subs the coach puts in, trying everything possible to find a system that works and secure a win. The team has a few players who play and have played significant roles in the group in years prior, one being Cameron Harris. Harris is one of 3 captains on varsity and started playing varsity his sophomore year. Also, I had a significant role in the CIF run as a starter and mainly played the whole game.
Harris said this when asked about his thoughts and expectations of the team and the season. “My thoughts going into this year was, we aren’t the same team from last year, and we got to figure out who we are as a team to succeed. This also is a big part of the new coach plans, having team meetings instead of or for part of some practices or before games to figure out who we are as a team. We try to find things that will work, like new lineup formations, seeing how players play in different positions, etc. Hopefully, these tactics will help lead the boys to a victory or two in their upcoming games vs AV and Highland.
When Harris was also asked about any significant changes he saw or was expecting going into and preparing for the new season, This was his response. “Some major changes were losing the 13 seniors, forcing us to start with an almost new roster, as well as a new coach; so yes, this has had a major effect on the season thus far.” QHHS’s previously senior-heavy squad had many big role players who were seniors, and most of the new players taking their spot have no experience playing var and are not being called up for CIF. That could be another significant effect, especially when we look at younger teams like Palmdale and Little Rock, who only lost 2-3 seniors and still were in the top three with QHHS and even co-golden league champs with QHHS.
Harris’ last comments were about the effects of the team’s CIF run. “The CIF run has affected us positively. I feel our team now has a higher standard to live up to compared to years before this one, and they know we have to be able to sustain this standard and accomplish what we want and that most teams in the Golden League are out for us and we are just going to have to work 10x harder”. Most coaches and players from other schools have even said that everyone in Golden League was out to get QHHS at the start of the season. So, like Harris said, the team needs to work above the standard set last season for another chance at CIF.
The QHHS soccer program has had many significant changes this season. This caused an effect most people didn’t see coming, but with an effort from players and coaches to fix these problems to help work towards results the team is happy with, QHHS will continue to work hard until they see the needed effects for a chance at another CIF title.
