STLCC men’s and women’s soccer both had to move their fall season to the spring.
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Editor-In-Chief
STLCC men’s and women’s soccer began their season in the spring instead of the usual fall start. Men’s Soccer Head Coach Ricardo Garza said that the team was planning on playing in the fall, but due to COVID-19, they were skeptical and didn’t think they would be playing in the spring.
Women’s soccer Head Coach Jason Howard said that they are taking it day by day and their games are in a shorter time frame. “It’s not 110 degrees. So I mean, I like that aspect of it. It’s different with how condensed the schedule is,” Howard said. “Because we’re playing a lot more games in a shorter duration. But other than that, once the games get going, it feels pretty much the same thing.”
Although this is Garza’s first year as head coach for the STLCC men’s soccer program, he said that it is weird and unusual to be playing in the spring but he loves it. “It’s awkward, because we’re going to finish in May, they’ll be off 8-10 weeks, and then we go right back in,” Garza said. “So in the current situation, I love it, because we are playing real games. So I think we’re going to play some really good soccer in the fall because of playing in the spring.”
The pandemic has affected their seasons recruitment wise. “We lost a lot of players that couldn’t come in. They were domestic here in the United States as well as international. I can think of seven off the top of my head right now,” Garza said. “So we put an email out just before preseason of any students interested to play. And we picked up several really decent players.” Garza said that the team is still playing well.
Women’s soccer has recruited a few of the girls from the women’s basketball team to play with them, according to Howard. “We are thankful that we are here. The girls get along really well and react positively to just about everything,” he said.
COVID-19 has caused issues both athletic-wise and personally for players. “There’s all kinds of different things going on, like in life, like some of the players, families are affected,” Garza said. “We had multiple signings, and they had to back out, because when they signed everything was good. And then within a month or so, their families were laid off. And so, players couldn’t even come because of financial reasons. And it’s affecting everything.” He said that they are blessed to be able to play when there is a lot going on in the world.
Howard said that the women’s team hasn’t had a lot of difficulties while playing during the pandemic.”I really don’t feel like it’s that different. I mean, there’s more paperwork to do to be real honest,” he said.
Both men and women’s teams are trying to stay positive in times like these and the players get along with each other well, said both coaches. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a group as well as they do. And that’s a really, really big thing,” Howard said about the women’s team. “They play hard for each other. They fight for each other, and they listen really well. They’re very positive. They are fit. So I think there’s a lot of positives there with this group. They’re really fun to coach so hopefully, everybody can stay healthy and continue.”
Garza said that he is hopeful for the fall season since most of his players are freshmen. “The majority of these guys are all freshmen, and they already have a season under their belt, without it costing them means I get to have them for three years, that’s not supposed to happen,” he said. So I think these guys get to come back in the fall, have a season under but it’s good to start over again, as a freshman.”
Garza also said that the players will be academically a year ahead. “They’re a year ahead academically, so they can really just focus to finish and graduate after their sophomore year and move on to NCAA schools,” he said.
Since the men’s soccer team is mainly freshman, Garza said that they don’t have the type of experience which can be a setback. “So they come from high school, they go straight into this, they don’t know what to expect. We don’t have enough veterans to tell them how it is,” he said. “And it’s a new program. It’s a new staff. So our standards are completely different than all of the past coaches.”
Garza hopes and motivates his players to win a star for Pete Sorber who built the STLCC soccer program. “ I want to win him a star before you know he moves on to a better place. So that’s my motivation,” he said.
Howard said that women’s soccer has always room to improve throughout the season. “There’s always stuff that we can work on,” he said. “We’re playing pretty well and staying positive with everything. So hopefully, with the girls that we have, we can stay healthy and they can keep getting along with each other and playing hard.”
Even though they plan on going back to playing in the fall next semester, both teams plan on using what they learned from playing this semester. Garza said that he plays players in different positions in case COVID related issues come up. “Just letting everybody get an opportunity to play different positions. I thought that several players were going to play a completely different position and because of injuries, COVID, whatever they’ve had to play,” he said. “I need to do that more as a coach and play people out of position early in the season in case we need to play there.”
Howard said that what they do every year stays the same and they don’t plan on changing a lot for the fall season.
Even though both men and women’s teams are taking it day by day, the players are staying positive and hope COVID doesn’t affect the rest of their season. Garza said, “We’re just taking it day by day. I think everyday we’re not sure if we’ll get shut down because of COVID and all of that so we’re just kind of taking it day by day, and I think that’s what we’re gonna carry over into the fall.”
According to Howard, consistency has been helpful. “I kind of like how we’re playing right now. They’re coming in everyday. Playing hard. They seem to be getting better every day. Hopefully they can retain that positivity. There’s a long way to go here.”
Garza said that he wasn’t sure about coming back to coach college but he was happy he did. “I was staying Semi Pro, and I’m actually really grateful I did because I remember the opportunity to help change the boys so that I can kind of see them growing a little bit,” he said. “I just didn’t realize how much I would enjoy it and I’m enjoying every bit of it being back at the college game.”
