By Peter Fusilero
Executive Sports Editor
With less than a week before school started, this year’s boys varsity soccer team already has been assembled, begun their practices and has their first home game on the new turf Aug. 20 against Highland Park.
Being so early in the season, varsity coach Kurt Trenkle says that the team is just trying to get into shape for the upcoming season opener Monday.
“We basically have a week to really get into game condition…[the players] know they need to get their fitness levels up as quickly as possible,” Trenkle said.
Not only is Trenkle conditioning this new team, he is trying to figure out what works best with this year’s team.
“The biggest challenges we have every year is figuring out the specific skill set that this group has,” Trenkle said.
Last year’s spectacular season was a testimony to how great Prospect soccer can be.
Going into this fall, the varsity team will be losing All-State and MSL conference’s number one goal scorer in Bill Cooney and MSL East Player of the Year in Brad Reibel who led Prospect (20-1-2) to a regional crown which hadn’t been done since 1994.
The team then went on to making it all the way to the sectional final until falling to Fremd 0-4.
Reibel had 18 career shutouts while Cooney had 22 goals and 20 assists in his career.
However, losing this “dynamic duo” motivates this team to repeat what happened last year.
“It’s going to take hard work and I think we need good chemistry which will lead us to a better season,” senior Curtis Glennon said.
Replacing Reibel in goal will most likely be Bill’s younger brother Jack Cooney who is going to be a junior and most likely replacing Bill Cooney at forward will be senior Kennedy Mcnamar.
Glennon says that the team has a lot of potential and can win many games.
“All of the seniors last year are saying we won’t be able to do what we did last year and I think that gives the returning varsity players a little push,” Glennon said.
Glennon also said that senior leadership will be a big part of the team’s success because it will push the younger varsity players to compete that much harder.
Trenkle agrees that the seniors will need to step up this season in order to be successful.
“We have tons of senior leadership and we need to play together; this is going to be team-oriented game,” Trenkle said.
