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St. Luke's Boys Varsity Soccer: Season Preview
St. Luke’s Boys Varsity Soccer squad heads into the 2018 season with a great deal of optimism. An impressive opening-day victory over Rye Country Day School on Thursday, September 13, has only added to that hope.
Head Coach Ryan Fairhurst returns for his third year with the team and believes preseason has been the best one of his tenure. “Preseason has been excellent. We had 18 of the squad choose to attend an All-Prep School residential camp prior to our first day on campus and that has proven to be very beneficial. The guys had the opportunity to really bond together as well as getting a lot of touches on the ball,” he said.
BVS graduated some key defensive players but Fairhurst is confident he has the athletes to step into those roles. “We lost Ryan Neafsey ('18) who was our starting goalkeeper and one of our captains. Neafsey was a very strong player for us so we are looking for Kenny Lam ('19) or Mack Lemkau ('20) to really step up and take on that responsibility. We also lost an All-State center back in Chase Zammit ('18) but I believe Bear Crystal ('20) and Desmond Pratt ('20) are more than adequate replacements and can fill that void.”
The Storm had scrimmages against Trinity Catholic High School, Darien High School, New Canaan High School, and St. Joseph’s High School before the 2-1 victory over FAA rival Rye. The head coach has been very impressed with his squad. “The returning varsity players have been superb during preseason. They have shown great maturity and athleticism. I feel like we have a very good core of players to build around and help some of the younger players.”
This year’s team will be captained by Lam, CJ Woodberry '19, Phil Platek '20 and Crystal with Fairhurst looking for the quartet to set the tone. “I expect the four of them to drive the standards throughout the season. I’m looking for them to rally the troops when needed and set extremely high standards both on and off the field. I want them to go about things the right way and they have been doing a fantastic job so far,” he said.
Fairhurst believes one of the team’s strengths this year will be their technical ability with a number of the group hoping to play at the next level. “I think the last couple of years we have had to rely more on our athleticism but this year we should be able to keep the ball a lot better because of the number of gifted players we have. Our midfield three of Julien Velez ('20), Landon Bachman ('20) and Max Mitchell ('20) will be very important to us this season. We will be looking to them to get control and dictate the pace of the game.”
Another player who has been in fine form so far is sophomore striker Jake Kavan. Fairhurst hopes he can supply the attacking threat to cause the opposition a lot of problems: “I think we will be leaning on Jake heavily this year. He has a tremendous amount of quality and if he can nurture that into getting a few more goals for the team that will be huge.”
The Storm knows it will have to be at its best in a very competitive league but spirits are very high heading into the campaign. “Hopkins is definitely the favorite again going into the season but King has improved a lot,” Fairhurst said, “Our goal is to make the FAA playoffs and we want to compete in a championship game. We are pushing for that as a group but have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
Next up: Boys Varsity Soccer continues its season on Saturday, September 15 against Millbrook School at home at 4pm.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
