Throughout the season the junior varsity soccer team has done exceptionally well. The team came together so well they clinched the NAC-VI conference title.

“I think we have better chemistry as a team, so we’re playing better as a whole. We’ve gotten to know each other better,” sophomore Khalil Gueye said.

Coach Elias Zaytoun was very pleased with how his team played this season.

“It went extremely well. We met all of our goals. We only lost one game the entire season, and we went undefeated in conference to win the JV conference title, so very well.”

Freshman Austin Talmadge, along with the rest of the team, had to work to earn a spot in the starting lineup due to the amount of talent this year.

“I think that we all had to be really competitive for our spots in the lineup if we wanted to play,” Talmadge said. “We had so many good players who could do a lot, so we had to work really hard if we wanted to play.”

On the JV level, players are often called up to varsity, and the team has to adapt, asking other guys to step up and contribute.

“Well we had these two people who got pulled up in the middle of the season, and so I had to play hard and be a leader on the team and I think that helped me,” sophomore Justin Palmer said.

Sophomore Bryan Marshall accomplished becoming a better player and role model for the team through the season.

“I feel like I grew as a player and a leader throughout the year,” Marshall said.

As a former soccer player and now coach, Zaytoun reminisces on his previous days on his high school soccer team.

“It helped me rediscover how much I liked soccer because I hadn’t been around the game since high school, but it also helped me appreciate a different side of high schoolers,” Zaytoun said. “I mean some of the guys who were excelling at something besides school.”