Youth Movement: CHS Boys Welcome Challenge

By Colin Murphy

For Head Coach Chris Collins and the Chesapeake High School boys soccer team, the name of the game heading into the 2011 season is growth.

“We’re young this year,” said Collins as his players warmed up for their second practice session of the day on August 17. “We’ve got a lot of inexperience all over the field, so we’re looking for the seniors to step up and be leaders and show our new players what we expect out of them.”

In a county stacked with soccer powers like Arundel, Severna Park, Broadneck, and South River, the Cougars’ youthful core will find themselves quickly thrown into the fire, and their inexperience will present its challenges as the team looks to improve on last year’s 7-6-1 overall record. As distinct from the 2010 season, when the Cougars suffered a rash of season-ending injuries in the early going, Chesapeake’s talented group of upperclassmen return healthy, fit, and hungry to lead this year’s charge.

“I think it’s going to go well,” said senior goalkeeper Cory Budka, who missed the majority of last season due to injury. Budka cites the team’s conditioning as a major strength at this early point in the season, noting the players trained throughout the summer in order to arrive at preseason practices ahead of the game in terms of fitness. “We have a lot of kids in great shape this year,” said Budka, adding that nobody fell short of the team’s demanding fitness requirements on the first day of practice.

Senior forward Joey Fontanez agreed, expressing confidence the team’s younger players are more than ready to take their game to the next level.

“I think we’re going to be pretty good,” said Fontanez, one of the team’s leading scorers in 2010, and a key component of what is shaping up to be a high-powered Chesapeake offense. “Some of our JV players came up and played with us last year, so they have some experience. I think we’ll be able to go far this year.”

Asked about the team’s goals for the season, Collins, who is now in his eighth year as head coach, stopped short of predicting an overall record, choosing instead to focus simply on every player working hard to improve their play as much as possible.

“We’ve got a good group of kids, and most of them came [to preseason practices] in pretty good shape,” said Collins, who is having his players practice each day from 6:00-7:00am in addition to the two-hour afternoon practices. “We’re trying to get the most out of them right now, pushing them pretty hard, and it’s coming along pretty well. We have a lot of good coaches on staff, so we’re just trying to teach them as much as we can.”

As for the players, when asked if there was a particular match-up they were looking forward to, there was no hesitation. “Beating Severna Park last year was huge,” said Budka. “We’re definitely looking forward to playing them again this year at home.”

The Chesapeake boys soccer held its first round of scrimmages on August 20 and open up the season on September 2 with a home game against Centennial High.