PLYMOUTH — With numbers and talent at an all-time high for Plymouth boys soccer, Rockies coach Josh Martin has a smile on his face thinking about the coming season.
“We’ll have nine to 12 seniors we can call on at any time — and maybe more juniors,” said Martin. “Playing tournaments this summer was a real treat. I could play games with all seniors and juniors and really had enough players to put two teams out there. Our depth this year should be better than it ever has been. We should be able to use 15 to 16 guys deep and not have any drop in play.”
With plenty of returning experience in that mix, it makes the season seem even brighter.
“I’ve got three of my four defensive starters back as well as my goalie,” he said. “All our midfield is back and up front we lost a lot of goals, but we’ve got some guys with speed and quickness and are very technically-solid players. I feel good about it. We played in a showcase in Argos recently and we scored 14 goals and only gave up three, so I feel like we’ve got players that are going to make us very strong offensively.”
There’s also a little intangible that goes with returning an experienced roster.
“I was talking with (PHS Principal Jim) Condon the other day and he said that he’d had a chance to spend some time with a lot of our guys and he said ‘They’ve got a little swagger to them’,” said Martin. “That’s a good thing. I think maybe our guys might have been a little surprised with their success. We had a lot of it early. We beat Goshen. We beat Warsaw. We beat Northridge and those are all teams we’ve struggled with over the years.
“A lot of these guys have been playing since they were sophomores. That experience and resilience is going to pay dividends. I feel like it’s going to get us through some games.”
In the Nothern Lakes Conference, that’s saying a lot.
“There is a lot of parity in our conference,” said Martin. “Some of the best teams in northern Indiana play in the NLC. Every single night you are going to go out and face really talented, athletic teams that are well coached.”
“Play in our conference is very fast paced and very physical. Teams like Warsaw are going to really test you physically and then you get a team like Goshen that at times can move so fast that you can’t keep up. I was really happy with our guys several times over the summer in very physical games. They leaned into guys and bodied them up. You have to be able to be physical to win in our conference,” Martin said.
“I really feel that’s an advantage to NLC teams in the tournament,” said Martin. “There aren’t any weak teams and when you’re used to facing off with teams like we have in our conference you feel like you can face off with anyone. NLC matches prepare you for that.”
With a runner-up finish in conference play, Martin would like for this year’s squad to get a step better all the way around.
“It would be great to build off our success and move another step forward,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to start that tradition of always being a team contending for that conference title and always being a sectional contender, but I think it goes a little deeper for us too as a program. We want to leave a legacy of excellence not just on the field but academically and in the community. We want a culture of excellence off the field just as much as on it. We want to be disciplined off the field as well as on it.”
He added, “I’m really excited about the players that we have this year and about where we are as a program. They’ve worked hard to get to this point and it will be nice to get started.”
The soccer team will kick off its season at Bremen on Thursday, Aug. 17 at 5 p.m.
