Sophomore Nick Guay is a key returning player for the Coupeville High School boys soccer team. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Guay is joined by freshman Cael Wilson, the first Wolf to score in a varsity game as an 8th grader.
Youth rules the day.
As the Coupeville High School boys soccer squad preps for its first full season back in the Northwest 2B/1B League, the Wolves will do so with no seniors on the roster.
Well, unless you count Mexican foreign exchange student Miguel Puentes, who is the great unknown heading into the new campaign.
Other than that, most of the experience on the Wolf roster comes in the form of players like junior Aidan Wilson, who punched in three goals during a pandemic-shortened sophomore season, and current sophomore Nick Guay.
Freshman Cael Wilson, who became the first 8th grader to score in a CHS varsity soccer game, and Guay each tallied a goal apiece last time out, providing the rest of the returning fire power.
Coupeville graduated defenders Sam Wynn and Owen Barenburg, while goal scorers Xavier Murdy (3) and Cole White (1) are currently planning to play tennis this fall.
The Wolves dipped their toes into the NWL, and playing in the fall as opposed to the spring, after moving from 1A to 2B last year.
CHS won its first game out, bouncing Providence Classical Christian, before finishing 1-5.
This time around, the Wolves have a full 16-game schedule, with all contests league affairs.
Boys soccer is a bit of a wild mish-mash in the NWL.
League mates Coupeville, La Conner, Orcas Island, Mount Vernon Christian, and Friday Harbor play, but Concrete and Darrington don’t.
So the five are joined by outsiders PCC, Lopez Island, Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood, and Grace Academy for just this one sport, making for a solid nine-team royal rumble.
Orcas Island is the reigning champ, and longtime big baddie, while I-5 corridor schools like MVC and PCC have rosters rich in players and coaches from non-school premier programs.
“All our opponents are fantastic programs,” said CHS coach Robert Wood. “And will be a challenge for us due to youth and inexperience.”
Along with Guay, the Wilson brothers, and the tantalizing promise of a foreign exchange student arriving from a soccer-mad country, the Wolves will rely on players such as Preston Epp and Grant Steller.
Epp is a freshman, who, like Cael Wilson, is heading into his second year as a varsity player.
While Steller is making his CHS debut, he has prior experience playing for Deception FC and has been named with Aidan Wilson as a team captain.
Wood plans to work extensively on building his young players confidence and fitness, with an emphasis on “teamwork and off-ball movement.”
“We have a very young team, so success is not going to be measured in win/loss record against the I-5 corridor of year-round competitive players,” he said.
“We want to build our soccer IQ and team skills, for the long-term development of the CHS soccer program.”
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