By Dylan Wallace
Seymour girls soccer will enter the 2021 season with a target on its back.
The Owls are the reigning conference champions, and the biggest adjustment this season will be learning how to play as the team that everyone wants to take down.
“It’s a new hat to wear, which is exciting for us,” head coach Greg Musser said. “It’s going to be a fun year. It’s going to be fun to have that target and learn how to play like that. Excited to see what the season brings.”
Musser believes his team learned a valuable lesson from last year’s sectional. The Owls entered as the favorite after winning the Hoosiers Hills Conference but came up short in the sectional.
He thinks that experience will benefit the Owls this season.
“When you win, you have to practice harder, and when you lose, you have to practice harder,” Musser said.
Even though Seymour lost a lot of leadership from a season ago, Musser said there were a lot of players lying in wait to step into the spotlight, and now, they get that chance.
Seymour has a solid core returning to the pitch, and its backline has been together for a couple of years now.
The middle of the field also is all back from last year.
“We’ll have some strengths down the spine of the field, and we’re just going to have to fill in some gaps here and there to get our style of play to match our personnel at this point,” Musser said.
Of the returning players, Musser is excited to see what seniors Haley Westfall, Eliza Cash and Lillie Wessel are able to do in a leadership role.
Some of the other players that have stood out so far are Kate Connell, who has played sparing minutes in the past but will get a full dose of starter’s minutes this season. Musser also thinks Brooke Trinkle has been a “stud” for the Owls on the outside and in the backline so far.
Some of the young pieces are freshman Paige Mora, who will contribute up top, and sophomore Rachel Lenart, who will see some varsity minutes this season, as well.
“It’s exciting to see some of these young girls mix in with the returners,” Musser said. “It’s just a good group of kids from top to bottom. It’s going to be fun.”
Seymour opens its season Saturday at home against Batesville with junior varsity starting at 10:30 a.m. and varsity following.
Seymour boys also set for season-opener
The Seymour boys soccer team has a lot of experience on its backline, and that’s where head coach Matt Dennis has the most expectations heading into this season.
“I’ve got pretty high expectations in terms of our defense and keeping the other team out of the net,” Dennis said.
As for the Owls’ attack, it has a young core up top.
There’s a lot of inexperience in that area, but Seymour is working a lot on getting the ball in front of the net and finding ways to then get the ball in the back of the net.
Seymour is going to hang its hat on defense and really work on counterattacks to create most of its offense from its defense.
“We know we can always rely on our defense,” Dennis said.
Seymour has revamped its schedule over the past couple of seasons and made it much tougher, meaning there won’t be any cupcake games on the schedule.
“By the end of the season, I want us to be battle-tested,” Dennis said. “I want us to be experienced in games that are tight, games that are physical, games against better opponents, so that when we get to sectional, we’re prepared because our sectional is quite tough.”
Much like Dennis has high expectations for his defense, he also has high expectations for the seniors on the roster.
The seniors on the Owls’ team this season are Kevin Cervantes, Gabriel Baker, Mauricio Aragon, Donovyn Thomas, Casey Regruth, Will Cottrill, Tsubasa Kato, Luke Reasoner and Alfredo Gaspar.
Regruth, Baker and Reasoner are the captains for the team.
This group of seniors saw one of Seymour’s best seasons when they were freshmen. They’ve struggled since that year, but each season for the Owls has gotten better as this group of seniors has grown.
“Our seniors have a job to do,” Dennis said. “It’s now time for them to shine. All of our seniors need to step up in a big way. Our seniors are what’s going to start us off.”
Seymour starts its season Saturday on the road at Jasper with JV starting at 1 p.m. and varsity following.