The best way to find out what a team is made of is to throw them into the deep end of the pool to see if they can swim, or at least stay afloat.
South Puget Sound Community College’s men’s soccer team, made up of 22 freshmen and just two returning sophomores, was flung into the ocean landmined by sharks wearing NWAC championship rings.
In their NWAC season opener at the Regional Athletic Complex Saturday afternoon, the Clippers squared off with reigning NWAC champion Highline College. While the end result was a 3-0 shutout loss, fourth-year head coach Max Sampson learned a valuable lesson about what his team is made of.
He often uses a Lou Holtz saying to help his team focus: “What’s Important Now? (W.I.N.)”. What’s important to the Clippers now is that they held the NWAC champion Highline, which has led the entire NWAC in goals scored for the past three years, to three goals.
“Despite being a freshmen group, we felt that we took a step forward in some areas from last year’s group,” Sampson said. “For us, it was about building chemistry and learning, unfortunately, the hard way to avoid mistakes like fouling and getting pins. We’re building possession chemistry and how to retain the ball. We want to play a retention style. I’ve been really happy with that.”
The first test for the youthful Clippers was a handful of corner kicks by Highline early in the first half, four in a seven-minute span, to be exact. None of them presented goals, but Zack Robertson put the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard with a goal in the 20th minute.
SPSCC recorded all three of its shots in the first half but did not get another one off. The Clippers frequently took an aggressive approach and boomed passes down the pitch, often to a streaking Ebrahim Shihadeh, but connections on those passes were rare.
Highline added two goals in the second half, first by Drew Diaz in the 50th minute and then by Peter Scheffler in the 59th. Highline outshot SPSCC 23-3 in the game, which was called with less than a minute remaining after a head injury to Highline goalkeeper Blake Leavens.
Clippers sophomore goalkeeper Wyatt Thornycroft recorded eight saves for a new career high. Only he and Juan Lopez suited up for the Clippers a season ago.
“Both of them are really calm, cool and laid-back guys. They’re gonna lead by example,” Sampson said of the sophomores. “It’s been good for guys that are younger to see how those guys go about their day. They’ve been good role models for them.”
Sampson has been impressed with the play of freshmen Taylor Masson, Christopher Richardson and Tristan Aguirre so far, but the entire freshmen group has yearned to be coached and to get better in practice.
“They take coaching to heart. I’ve been really harsh with this group. I’ve really tried to lock in and push them to see how far they can stretch,” Sampson said. “I’ve gotta be skillful on what they need from me to support them. They want to be coached, they want to apply things, they want to do well for the team, and they want to prove themselves and know that college soccer is a place where they can belong and do well.”
Next up for SPSCC (0-3, 0-1 NWAC) is a home matchup with Tacoma Community College Wednesday, Sept. 2 at the RAC.
