Seymour boys soccer head coach Matt Dennis speaks about his team’s season at the Owls awards banquet Tuesday night in the cafeteria at Seymour High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Earning awards at the Seymour boys soccer ceremony on Tuesday night was, back row from left, Sam Chandler, Brody Unterseher, Will Smith, Emilio Garcia, Logan Westfall, Jordan Ritter and Donovan Delgadillo; front row is Tsubasa Kato, Luke Reasoner, Donovyn Thomas, Casey Regruth, Gabe Baker and Will Cottrill.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour boys soccer had more wins this season than it had combined in the previous two.
It was a testament to the development and growth of the Owls on the roster, and the team gathered together one final time in 2021 to celebrate its season inside the cafeteria at Seymour High School.
Seymour head coach Matt Dennis started by thanking the parents and families of the players who help keep the program going.
“It takes a lot of people to give these players what they want and what they deserve,” Dennis said. “We have a really good structure around that and I’m really grateful for that.”
The Owls finished 9-5-2 this season and finished third place in the Hoosier Hills Conference behind Columbus East and Floyd Central.
Seymour’s season ended with a loss in sectionals to Floyd Central. Seymour also added the likes of Bloomington South and Center Grove on its schedule to make it tougher.
“I think it was a very successful season considering the schedule we put together,” Dennis said. “I think it’s awesome to increase our difficulty and strength of schedule and get more wins.”
The Owls handed out a plethora of awards on Tuesday night as well.
Dennis wanted to shoutout the three-year and four-year varsity award winners — Gabe Baker, Tsubasa Kato, Luke Reasoner, Casey Regruth and Donovyn Thomas — because when they were sophomores, the team had three wins.
“You look how far they’ve come from three wins to nine,” Dennis said. “You look at the development over the years, that’s Seymour soccer.”
Seymour then handed out its team awards. Earning JV most improved was Donovan Delgadillo and JV MVP went to Jordan Ritter.
As for varsity, the most improved award went to Emilio Garcia, and Logan Westfall earned the coaches award.
The next four awards were all voted on by the players. The defender of the year went to Regruth, midfielder of the year to Reasoner, attacker of the year to Thomas, and Thomas also earned the MVP as well.
Thomas led the Owls in scoring with 11 goals this season.
“When you look at a team’s leading scorer, it’s usually their front or attacking mid,” Dennis said. “Our leading scorer is our left mid, and I think that when you look at our play on the right side, you can see why he had so many goals. We got it over to him, and he finished the ball.”
Earning HHC all-conference honorable mention this season was Baker, Reasoner and Thomas. Earning HHC first-team all-conference was Kato, Regruth and goalie Will Smith.
“I’m hoping next year we can honor even more players,” Dennis said. “I know we have more guys deserving.”
Next up were the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association awards. Dennis’ favorite awards to give out were the all-academic awards.
Seymour had nine players earn academic all-state, and those were Baker, Cottrill, Reasoner, Regruth, Thomas, Smith, Sam Chandler, Brody Unterseher and Alexis Villegas.
The ISCA also hands out a “Top Team Player” award, and that goes to an individual that does whatever is asked of him and embodies what it means to be a team, and that award went to Reasoner.
Lastly were the all-district awards. Smith earned second team all-district — he was the only keeper on the second team — and Regruth earned first team all-district.
The Owls went from 36 goals allowed in 2019, to 25 in 2020, to just 16 in 2021.
“It was pretty easy to sell a goalkeeper and a centerback to get honored,” Dennis said.
Regruth will be playing next Saturday for the district team against the Indianpolis district and the Fort Wayne district, and Regruth will have a shot to earn all-state.
“We’ll see if we can get further recognition for our boys,” Dennis said. “I’m hoping we can increase the number of boys that get recognized in this manner because I know we have a number of talented boys.”
Seymour’s JV team went 10-3-1 on the season, which has Dennis and the coaching staff excited about the coming seasons even despite the fact the Owls are losing some valuable seniors from this past year.
“The future looks bright,” Dennis said. “We saw a lot of promise and improvement from those guys. I’m looking forward to those guys developing over the next couple years.”