A program looking to continue the rebuild process is the West Holmes boys soccer team. The focus this fall is on fundamentals.
“I have a positive outlook for the season,” West Holmes coach Josh Wengerd said. “It has been and continues to be a rebuilding process. I feel that we are going to be more fundamentally sound than we have been the past few years.”
A big asset for the Knights this fall is an increase in players, which, with continued work on fundamentals, could lead to big results down the road. For Wengerd, it’s just about staying on step one, and that is continuing the growth of fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding of the game — the combination of which would help his squad stay in games and compete at the level they want to.
“Our numbers have significantly improved,” Wengerd said. “We have 23 players, which with this, we will look to improve our soccer IQ on the pitch as a collective.”
The goal is to build off the lessons learned from a year ago and apply them to flip results that were close a year ago into positive results this fall.
Leading the way for Wengerd and dubbed the team’s Swiss Army Knife is Garrett Obrst. The junior is the team's most complete player and will be the one looking to set the pace for the squad this year. Moving all over the pitch, Obrst will look to improve his impact in the offensive third and help the team control the pace of play throughout the midfield.
Sophomores Oliver Hiller (defender) and Jimmy Wengerd (forward) along with Jordan Gerber (goalkeeper), Lucas Mast (midfielder), Jacob Galbraith (forward), Ryder Fox (midfielder/goalkeeper), Reece Wengerd (defender/midfielder) and Domenic Guerra (defender/midfielder) are all a year older and more experienced. They will be counted on to take the experiences from a year ago and build off them.
“Our goals are to continue to develop players,” coach Wengerd said. “We know we are going to struggle in the Ohio Cardinal Conference, but we have ambitions of winning more of our nonleague games. There are teams on our schedule that we feel that we can compete with.”
