The Woodside High School boys soccer team will be facing tougher competition this year as they go up a league this upcoming season.
The Wildcats will move up from the Ocean division to the Bay division. This new division includes the best of the best of teams from the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) with the best records from last season. The Bay division includes Aragon, Burlingame, Carlmont, Menlo-Atherton, Sequoia, South San Francisco, Westmoor, and Woodside.
“As a team returning to the Division, I expect all the Bay Division teams to give us trouble,” said Coach Darrell Ringman. “Teams can change pretty dramatically year-over-year, but among the most exciting and passionate matches are Carlmont, Sequoia and Menlo-Atherton as our most-local competitors always seem to be exciting and challenging.”
With more challenging games in the tougher league, players will definitely need to work hard to meet the new competition.
“All players will need to step up,” Ringman said. The roster is decided after a formidable tryout gauntlet of fitness, endurance, ball handling, agility, possession and finishing activities have been observed.”
Once the tryout is complete, the team will be mostly full of sophomores and juniors with a few seniors who will try to lead the team to success.
“As usual, upper classmen are always relied upon for leadership and of course, the juniors and seniors who made our return to Bay possible now have a new challenge of keeping Woodside in the upper Division where it belongs,” Ringman added.
Players this year share similar opinions with their coach on their leadership skills that will lead them to success.
“We can build off of the success of last year because we still have a lot of the key players that were there last year to lead us,” junior Isaac Parker-Sleator offered.
Even though the Wildcats will be playing totally different teams this year and will have some new additions to their roster, not much will change in terms of game plan and coaching strategies.
“Nothing changes dramatically. I expect full effort, the highest degrees of teamwork and sportsmanship and alignment with the team’s plan, no matter who is on the other side of the field,” Coach Ringman said. “Every game is a serious contest, regardless of the competition.”
Despite the seriousness and competitiveness of every game, Wildcat players have high hopes for this year.
“With our undefeated regular season last year, we will probably be able to qualify for CCS again just like last year,” Parker-Sleator added.
In order to maintain a level of success in the Bay division, Coach Ringman will make sure that his boys are ready every time they compete during the upcoming season.
“WHS needs to look at itself introspectively and make sure it is delivering to it’s potential, at each and every try out day, training day and game day,” Ringman finished.
