SULPHUR–Despite going 7-14-2 last year and missing out on the playoffs, the Sulphur High Tor soccer team is optimistic that with nearly a dozen players returning with playing time from last year that they can turn things around.
The Tors will open the 2009-2010 campaign at home today against the DeRidder Dragons (5:30 p.m. JV/7 p.m. Varsity).
“I am optimistic,” Sulphur Tor head coach Walter Oglesby said. “If we can come up with a victory over DeRidder, I am looking for something good.
“It is just a matter of them coming out with fire in their eyes. Looking back at it unless we have someone sick the starting 11 tomorrow have either started or played a good part of the games last year. If we have any kind of weakness in the group is on that particular day do they really want to win the game. If they think they can win it and want to win it, then we will play some good soccer.”
The Tors will be playing in a slightly different district this season. Last season the Tors were in Division I District III with Barbe, Comeaux, Acadiana and St. Thomas More. Both St. Thomas More and Comeaux have moved to Division I District IV while Lafayette moved from District IV to District III. Lafayette is expected to be one of the top contenders for the Division I title this season.
Sulphur will also have one of their largest seniors classes in recent years with 11: Ryan Smith, Matt Stewart, Kai Ackley, Chris Benton, Anthony Frederick, Brandon Kieffer, Kendon Phillips, Adam Plauche, Matthew Towle, Theim Newell and Cole Gunter.
The Tors struggled to score last year, but with the extra year of experience, Oglesby his hoping things will change.
“Last year, I got to looking back when it came All-District time and added up the number of goals we scored and just shook my head,” Oglesby said. “We did not do much scoring and I don't know why.
“These guys can shoot but I guess it is just putting it on frame as they say enough to let the goalkeepers mess up or whatever. Hopefully with the set plays and the free kicks we will get a higher percentage of scoring."
After some off-season studying, Oglesby has been emphasizing what he calls set pieces such as corner kicks and free kicks as a solution to the Tors' scoring problems.
“During the off-season and at the beginning of the school year, Coach Folkes and I got some literature and some DVDs and looked at it,” Oglesby said. “One of the comments that they make is that so many of the goals are scored on set pieces like corner kicks and free kicks.
“So we are putting a lot more practice time on set kicks this year than we have in the past. We joke around that we would like to score 100 percent of the time on corner kicks but if we score 50 percent of the time we will have a lot more offense than we had last year. If you watch soccer, you know that you can play a 40-minute half and not score and put 10 seconds down in the corner and kick it in. That is just the nature of soccer. It is kind of like in baseball. You can have a no-hitter going and throw one bad pitch and the guy hits it over the fence.”
On the offensive side of the ball the Tors two strikers and four midfielders will consist of five seniors. Seniors Smith and Stewart will start at striker while fellow seniors Benton, Kieffer, Phillips and junior Brett Manuel will be at the midfield positions.
Oglesby plans to spread the ball around as he fills confident that the Tors will not have to rely on just one player to score.
“We have real good speed,” Oglesby said. “When we move the ball we do not have one player that we go to.
“That bunch has always had good size. A lot of people may be surprised. Those juniors played a lot of soccer last year. Of course our record was 7-14-2 but those guys can play better soccer than that. Chris played fullback last year so he has a defensive mind, which will allow Kieffer to go us and play some offense. If they do it right, Chris can get up and score because he has good speed and he is not afraid.”
Others looking to get playing time on the offensive side are sophomore Nic Duncan, and Colby Richard at midfield and striker and Newell at midfield.
The Tors will be set defensively with three seniors returning with plenty of experience in Frederick, Ackley and Towle. Joining the trio of fullbacks will be Adam Plauche at stopper.
“I don't really know of any weaknesses that jump out at me,” Oglesby said. "We have pretty good speed.
“We may make a wrong step and they get around us and score.”
Backing up the trio of starters will be Hunter Patton who is capable of playing at any of the four defensive positions as well as being a backup at the midfield position.
While the Tors have no shortage of experience at striker, midfield or defense, the Tors will have a new goalkeeper this season.
After rupturing his spleen during his freshman year, Gunter has returned for his senior year.
“Our goal keeper is sort of unknown,” Oglesby said. “If Cole had played when he was a sophomore and a junior we would have an All-District goal keeper.
“He was through with soccer for a while but he decided to come back his senior year as a goal keeper. He has one of the main qualifications for a goalkeeper; he wants to be one. He has real good hands and it is just a matter of getting him some game experience and different situations.”
Backing up Gunter will be junior Shawn Theirbach and sophomore Jordan Johnson. It will be the first season to play soccer for Theirbach who also plays wide receiver for the Tor football team. Johnson was the Sulphur freshman goalkeeper last year and later moved up to the junior varsity starting position.
“This is the first time he has been out for soccer and he has excellent hands,” Oglesby said. “Of course being a wide receiver in football does not hurt at all.
"Some times it does not translate. You can be a good receiver in football and not have good hands as a soccer goalie. So far his translates."
