ARGOS – The question before Argos high school’s boys’ soccer team is how do you follow and 18-4 season, undefeated in your conference and, by the way, win a state championship?
Saturday the pursuit of that encore season begins with the Jamboree at Eugene Snyder field and then begins for real on Tuesday at the very same location as Warsaw comes to town.
A veteran of the sidelines, Argos coach Todd VanDerWeele knows a shot at a repeat title is still a long way away.
“It’s hard to do that,” he said. “The prevailing feeling for the fan’s point of view is probably ‘let’s just do it again’ but there is more of a process to that than just jumping on the field.”
“Our guys are hungry,” said VanDerWeele. “Every senior class that cycles through wants to make their own name. We had a great group of seniors that did a great job of leading and I think they gave the vision to the other guys that we could do that as the season went along.”
Add the ever-changing and volatile world of COVID-19. Restrictions to stop the spread of the virus have led to a pretty drastic change to practice.
“I’ve been at this for 13 years and my summers have always been somewhat the same,” said Argos head coach Todd VanDerWeele. “The plan is always the same but this year all of that has been turned upside down. I guess the only good news is that everybody is in pretty much the same boat, trying to squeeze two months into one with all the restrictions of the coronavirus.”
“It’s been a challenge, first of all, keeping the kids safe,” he said, “and then there’s the soccer play too.”
“The recommendations have changed a couple times but we are following health department guidelines,” said VanDerWeele. “The kids have actually responded well to that. I don’t know that they really like the things that they have to do but they understand that we have to do that to have a season. If not we won’t even be able to have a chance to compete this year.”
“When they are playing and competing they don’t have to be masked up,” he said. “When they are on the sideline getting water or we are in a confined area talking we have to be masked up.”
“I’m trying to stay masked up and 15 to 25 feet away from them when I’m talking to them.”
It’s all for a common end as the ultimate goal is to have a chance at any kind of a season at all.
“The desire among the guys is to say hey we can do it without those guys but that’s a day to day process of working on things and getting better and that’s what we are doing right now,” said VanDerWeele. “We are getting at that spot in the preseason where we just need to get out with some other bodies and see where we are.”
“Who” the team is is just as important to the coach.
“The one thing that has always endeared me to the game of soccer is that a lot of sports it’s the program, and this is how we play and you don’t deviate from that,” said VanDerWeele. “Soccer is a little different in that you have those players like a Renaldo or a Messi that are super creative players but not every player is that kind of player. The personality of each of your player’s factors into so much of what you do.”
“You might have a bunch of assertive kids, you might have a bunch of passive kids, you have to build off of that,” he said. “Last year our seniors were a little more assertive and we had some underclassmen who could follow that.”
“This year it is trying to figure out who are we and who those leaders are,” said VanDerWeele. “It’s a process and I’m not sure how that is going to pan out. We have to figure out how we are going to do it.”
Last year the Dragons roster sported eight players from each from the sophomore, junior and senior classes. The experience will come in handy.
“It was a very talented sophomore class and we have some kids who have been somewhat in the shadow of others and they are going to get their chance,” said VanDerWeele. “We have to build on the experience that we had last year and start thinking about how far we can go.”
There will be plenty of tests on the way as the Dragons have plenty of “rivalry” type games on the schedule.
“I’m one of those guys who feels that you have to have those tests during the year,” said VanDerWeele. “The Plymouth game, the Bremen game are always battles. We open with Warsaw that is one of the best programs around year in, year out. We finish the season with Bethany Christian and CMA who are our two biggest conference rivals.”
“We added Zionsville to our invitational who won the 3A championship last year,” he said. “It’s not easy but those are the games we have to have during the season to test the limits and see how far we are. That intensity level will be in those games will be the same in tournament games and we have to have that to learn how to survive a game like that.”
“If these guys can realize what they did last year and it may be they have that goal again but they need to forget last year and be their own team. If they can play their best game in their last game – win or lose I’d be happy with that.”
