Wildcat soccer is in rebuild mode

Published 10:37 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Mount Si boys’ soccer squad goes into 2006 with a number of questions. The team, coached by Darren Brown, who is in his second year, went 10-5-1 last season behind the efforts of Yosef Yetneberk, who graduated. The Wildcats came very close to going to state, but fell in the playoffs to Newport. One of the factors behind that loss is one of the main questions going into this season: goalkeeping.

“Well, I have two this year. I’m going to be carrying Bryce Werman, who was on the team last year, and I also have the lone freshman that’s going to make the varsity squad,” said Brown.

That freshman is Cody Tipton. His older sister, Jordan, was one of the four senior defenders on last fall’s girls’ squad that made state. “He’s [an] excellent, excellent keeper,” said Brown.

Werman is a junior and started in that playoff contest as an emergency replacement for then-senior goalkeeper Jeff Lewis, who was unable to play that game.

The top returning athletes are senior Dane Portscheller, and juniors Andrew Talevich and Gibson Bardsley. There are only seven returning players, four of whom are starters, from last year’s squad. Among the newcomers to watch are sophomore Adam Baumgardner, and seniors Cody Vanwinkle and Taylor Wise. Baumgardner is expected to play up front, while the two seniors will join Portscheller on defense.

With all the new faces, look for a much different team this season. “We’re going to be rebuilding. We have to re-tool everything so our formation’s going to change, … it’s more or less a rebuilding process for our program,” said Brown.

Bardsley was part of a one-two scoring punch that anchored Mount Si’s attack last season. The other part was speedy Yosef Yetneberk. Bardsley said the loss of his partner up front won’t change his approach. “Well, I don’t think that it’s going to change that much. We have a good young team coming up to varsity, so we should be able to work it out like I did with Yosef last year. It should be a good team,” Bardsley said.

The turnout numbers were a bit low this season for the boys’ program. Around 45 kids turned out and that only makes the rebuilding much harder. Don’t blame the new $75 fee for sports at the school on that, however, says Brown. “It’s hard to say. I don’t know if that has really impacted our kids. I just think that boys’ soccer in the Valley is a growing process. It’s not as strong as some of the other sports, as it is [with] the girls, where our numbers are double what we have out here, so that’s something that we’re trying to build and it’s a work in progress,” the coach said.

Another factor to consider with the newness of this group in relative terms is team chemistry. That and skill development are the main issues facing the coaches. “We’re always going to strive for excellence. I’m going to set the bar high for them, of course, … just to get better each and every day. A lot of these faces are new to each other. Some of these players have never played with each other, some have, so it’s really team chemistry is number one and that’s our concern coming out of the gates,” Brown said.

Brown expects Newport and Mercer Island to be at the top of the league yet again this season.

Bardsley thinks that when all is said and done, the Wildcats will do well this season. “We can compete for that second-place spot. It’s all up for grabs, really. It’s whoever wants to come out and play the game,” he said.

The boys open at home March 14 against Skyline. Their Kingco opener is March 24 against Sammamish.