Lucas Punkari
With the tryout phase now over and both rosters set, the Muskie boys’ and girls’ soccer squads will hit the pitch tomorrow for their first exhibition contests of the 2011 season.
The Rainy River Owls are providing the opposition, with action getting underway at 5 p.m. at Fort High.
“I can’t see the weather being too much of an issue so we should be good to go,” said Muskie boys’ head coach Shane Beckett.
“There’s a different level of intensity when the guys are playing against another high school team, and some of the players on each team know one another so it should be a lot of fun,” he added.
The Muskie boys’ roster features 24 players for the upcoming season, including 15 returning from last year’s squad.
“With all of those guys coming back, and the nice talented young kids that are coming into the fold, we felt that we needed to carry a little bit of a bigger roster than normal, so hopefully that works out for us,” Beckett explained.
On the other hand, the Muskie girls’ team has a much younger look to it, with 22 players wearing the black-and-gold this season.
“We had a few possible returnees that didn’t come back, but I don’t think that being younger is necessarily a weakness,” head coach Sarah Noonan remarked.
“We had a good batch of Grade 9 girls come out for tryouts, so even though we’re younger, I’m really excited to see how the girls do,” she enthused.
With their squads set, the focus for both Beckett and Noonan now will be towards determining formations and systems for the upcoming NorWOSSA campaign, which gets underway Wednesday, May 4 at Fort High.
“We’ll need to be outside a little bit more to determine our systems, but our overall philosophy won’t change,” Beckett said.
“We’re a possession team that holds the ball pretty well, keeps the ball high and the outside, forces the opponent into making the mistake, and being good on the counterattack with some really speedy guys,” he explained.
“Typically, I like to play a 4-4-2 system but I’m flexible within that,” Noonan added.
“During the next couple of weeks, and especially next week, we’ll be experimenting players in different positions to see who fits where and to try and get a flow going,” she noted.
