I interviewed two team captains of Sutton’s Varsity Soccer team, Jacob Viele and Griffin Melia. They expressed their excitement about this season. 

When asked about their captainship, they said it was their first rodeo as captains. They agreed that a positive attitude and a strong leadership personality are important. Younger kids are impressionable when older people take the lead, “doing some of the small things such as just picking up the cones or getting the balls, pretty much providing something for the younger players to look up to,” Griffin explained. 

Griffin believes that team chemistry could lead to “a really good season”,  with Jake backing him up saying, “I believe this is the strongest chemistry I have ever had on a varsity team. I have never felt chemistry this close.” Viele also introduced a plan in the conversation with a goal to reach 12 wins out of the total 16 games of the season. 

When asked what a day of practice looked like, Jake answers, “After school, straight to the fields, no going home. No nothing straight to the fields. Warmups are right after school, as soon as they can get to the fields.” Melia explained: “We want to be ready for when Coach shows up.” When Coach Michael Elster arrives, he usually explains the main plan of the day and a possible scrimmage at the end. Griffin explains that Coach pushes to “Try and execute what he said into a game sense. Then we wrap it up, (and) Coach touches up on the ideas he talked about.” Jake adds, “It’s physical and it is really just exhausting all the way through, but we work through it and we grow from it and practice is really where we learn a lot.”

When asked about how they mentally prepare themselves for the upcoming game, Griffin says “We get hyped,” and Jake agrees, “On the bus rides there, we are listening and playing music and socializing. After dynamics, we really just lock in and have a good mindset before the game starts,” he explains. “It’s difficult to make that shift from being all hyped up to locking in and focusing, but we are really getting better at it. It has helped us.”

It will be an exciting season for the Sammies. There is plenty of talent and passion on the team to fuel a great season.