SOCCER
Soccer goes from worst to firstBY JUSTYN DE QUEIROZ ON NOVEMBER 15, 2013
Finishing in last place last year, the Rose soccer team went from worst to first, finishing this season as conference champions. For the past four years, Rose has been in the Wilmington conference.
“Wilmington is a big soccer area with very good players and teams,” senior forward Deontre Robinson said. The Rose soccer team has struggled to compete with those teams. After Charlie Harvey’s Army died down in 2008-2009, Rose has not been known for soccer and the team has not finished the way they wanted. This was a new year for the soccer team. After three tough years of hard work, they were able to finish off the season as conference champions. Robinson had the game winning goal at the senior night game against New Bern. By winning this game, the Rampants became conference champions. “Being conference champions means the world to me,” Robinson said. “I’ve been playing with most of these boys my whole life, and to see our year on the conference champions board makes the feeling so much better.” Last fall, when the team got the news of a new conference, new captains and a new head coach for the 2013 season, they set goals and began training right away. “Well, at the end of last season we knew we were going into the new conference, and Jed Smith as the new head coach, immediately it issued us to start Insanity to become stronger,” senior captain and midfielder Adam Chahid said. “We pretty much didn't have an off season.” Along with preparing for the new season many months before the start of a new one, the team had list of goals they had set for themselves when they met at the end of last season. “We set some goals to be the best team in Pitt County, make it to playoffs, be undefeated at home, and to be conference champions,” senior captain and defender Ian Voos said. “We have accomplished every single one of those goals.” Making it to playoffs was a big goal for the team. The team had other goals but they knew that making it to playoffs was a reachable goal. “Going to playoffs is the pinnacle of my high school career,” Voos said. “ For the past four years we have faced difficulties within our program, but after the end of last season our whole team met to regather and set goals, and making it to playoffs was one of them, and we aimed for that throughout the season.” Going to playoffs was very important for Voos, along with the other seniors, because of the timing and the hard work they put into the season. “The fact that this is my senior year and that I have been given the privilege of being a captain only makes this accomplishment so much better,” Voos said. The soccer team finished the season with a 12-8-1 overall record and 9-3-0 in conference. To say that the team has had a very successful year would be an understatement in comparison to their record in the past. “All of the hard work and effort my team and I have been putting since the end of last season has payed off,” junior defender Wade Naziri said. “It means our success will always be remembered and no one can ever take it away from us because we earned it; and we have sent a message to the rest of the state of how much we have developed as a team.” The soccer team made it to the first round of playoffs but ended the game in a defeat to Broughton out of Raleigh. “Yes, we lost, but for this program in comparison to the past few years, we didn't take a step in the right direction, we have leaped towards it,” Robinson said. HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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