Fall Sports Previews: Greencastle, North Putnam soccer teams to battle for WIC boys’ title; South Putnam cross country teams split between experienced, fresh-faced rosters
A year after finishing as runner-up in the WIC, Greencastle made it to the top of the conference standings with a 6-1 record as part of a 11-4-2 2021 campaign.
Staying on top of the conference standings will take a large incoming Tiger Cub freshmen class to settle in quickly around its returning stalwarts.
Greencastle head coach JD Sims said the early practices were promising though there was still a lot of sorting to do to get the team put together.
“It’s been good,” Sims said. “We had a really productive first week of practices working on conditioning and general footwork.
“This week, we’ll be doing some more tactical work as we get things sorted out.”
Seth Kallem returns for his senior season after a 28-goal campaign a year ago, adding 10 assists along the way.
Kallem is joined by fellow seniors Boyd Ensley, Jonah Kaiser, Logan Peters and Collin Short, backed by juniors Henry Cox, Clay Glessner, Jalen Hardman, Dylan Olson, Harris Weltz, Sam White and Murilo Van Lieshout and sophomores Dylan Barcus and Josh Rumple. Incoming freshmen include Micah Foss, Cooper Grable, Sam Hanlon, Travis Overshiner, Anthony Peters, Jackson Rodgers, Jayce Spidel, Brakston Taylor and Miyln Tucker.
Figuring out the line in front of Weltz in goal was the first challenge facing Sims with the departure of main center back pairing Vincent Martoglio and Connor Barcus a particular sticking point.
“Our backline has the most change and we haven’t really figured out if we’re going to play four or five at the back,” Sims said. “Clay and Boyd were both guys that played out wide that might move into center back roles.
“Dylan and Sam are a couple of guys that can play in the middle and while we have quite a few players who can play in the defense, we just haven’t figured out who those guys are going to be yet.”
Another area of concern was the midfield around Kallem with Tyler Rodgers. Stephen Dombroski and Zane Huber, the latter already ruled out for the season due to injury, with Sims looking at the newcomers to make their mark in that zone.
“It’s a great question and one we’re trying to figure out,” Sims said about filling in the open midfield spots. “Seth is our focal point and we have a few freshmen who might see some game time there.
“We also have guys like Henry, who was a rotational player last year, that can fill in there but it’s hard to say right now. We have 10 freshmen who have quality in the midfield but are physically small.
“We haven’t had a chance to play with all the players on the same side, so we’re looking forward to doing that in our scrimmage Saturday,” Sims added.
Huber’s loss will also be felt up front though Sims said there were several options along the front line to help out.
“Jaylen was a rotation player last year and is someone we can put out wide to run at teams,” Sims said. “Boyd is someone that, if we don’t play at center back, we can send up the flanks.
“Micah Foss is going to see a lot of time as he plays a similar role to Seth, so we’ll see if they can pair up but there are still a lot of unknowns.”
While Sims said there were still plenty of questions that needed answering, it was not a lack of quality or skill in the players that was his concern.
“We have the players, we just need to put them in the right positions,” Sims said. “All of these guys have strengths in certain areas and some weaknesses in others that need to be balanced.
“Physicality is another issue as we are a smaller team right now. We just have to decide what trade-offs we want to take and we haven’t quite solved that yet.
“We’re looking forward to this week to work on formations, get to the scrimmage, experiment and face Monrovia next week, all for feedback to see what we want to do going forward,” Sims added.
Greencastle remains in 2A for sectional play and will be the targeted team in the WIC despite the amount of changes to the squad this season.
Regardless, Sims said once the pieces fall into place, the strength of the squad was enough to be in contention come the end of the season once again.
“I think it’ll be a successful season,” Sims said. “I think we can contend for the WIC and sectional with the players that we have.
“It will take time to figure some things out but we still have a player like Seth, who is still a huge part of what we do, as well as someone the new players can learn from, along with the returning players from last year.
“I was worried the first week of practice about how we weren’t going to click and instead we were looking good faster than I thought we would be,” Sims added. “I think this squad can have a comparable season to the ones we’ve had in the past.”
North Putnam
After one of the strongest seasons in school history in 2020, the Cougars followed it up with a better finish in the WIC by matching the 5-2 mark from the prior season while finishing 8-5 overall, having a few early season matches lost due to COVID restrictions from other schools.
Continuing on in the same vein will require North Putnam to fill several spots across the park left by graduation again, similar to the prior season.
The Cougars will be a younger team in 2022 with only two seniors in Carter Thomas and Myckah Slagle.
Several juniors will take on even more prominent roles this season in Brady Barber, Matthew Farrington, Nolan Hackleman, Evan Polley and Jaylen Windmiller along with sophomores Michael Ali, Tucker Elmore, Kaden Kelderman, Clayton McKinney, Braxton Mercurio and Brayden Neureiter. Newcomers to the squad include Chase Barber, Zachery Coffman, Gage Martellaro, Keaton O’Mullane, Isaac Polley, Gavin Simonson, Mythius Slagle and Nicholas Tefertiller.
Cougar head coach Kyle Morgan said filling those vacancies, particularly in goal where Aaron Pickel manned the sticks the past few seasons, and along the defensive line, were important in order to get settled into the season quickly.
“Things look good,” Morgan said. “Our goalkeeping situation will figure itself out.
“Sophomore Michael Ali didn’t play a lot last year outside of getting some JV appearances, so it will be about putting a strong defense in front of him to allow him to develop and get better. That said, I like the look of our defense one week in.
“We have a lot of guys that can step in and fill those spots,” Morgan added. “Coby, Brady, Jaylen, Carter and others are guys where we need to see where they fit and can help the team the most.”
Additional departures, including Seth Thompson, Sean Jarboe, Will Buescher, Nic Hensley, Zach Huff and Justin Thomas, meant the returners, particularly on offense, would have to pick up some slack according to Morgan.
“With graduating everyone that we did, we can’t expect to play the same brand of soccer we last year,” Morgan said. “We do bring back a lot of our offense with guys like Nolan, Isaac, Brayden and Matthew, kids that are experienced enough to carry the load.
“We’re mainly asking the guys that scored last year to score more and we have a good amount of confidence they can do that.”
The loss of Huff was of particular importance to the midfield but Morgan said the squad had already answered the same question last year and expected the team to do so again this year.
“We dealt with a similar question two years ago in how we were going to replace Dane Spencer,” Morgan said about losing Huff in the midfield. “We figured that out with Zach carrying on a lot of that load but we also distributed jobs around him.
“This year, we look at the sophomores and juniors we have and are asking them to add goals if they’re put into a similar spot. We have two seniors that are slightly more defensive minded to contribute goals, even if its just through set pieces.
“For our more offensive-minded players, we need to distribute the weight of scoring as we’re looking at seven guys to be the core of the team this year,” Morgan added. “We’ll have a couple of freshmen who will contribute, get some varsity minutes and maybe even start.”
While Cascade, the team that knocked out the Cougars the past two years in the sectional, was now elsewhere, Morgan said it was still a tough sectional to come out on top of but one the team could win, along with moving up one more spot in the conference hierarchy.
“The expectation that we’ve had the last couple of years is that we want to be playing on sectional Saturday,” Morgan said. “That hasn’t worked out the last couple of years but we still want to do it, just like the team three years ago did.
“We had our highest finish in the WIC in second last year, continuing on from third place the year before, and feel like we have a team fully capable of continuing to move up in the conference and play for a sectional title.”
Cross Country
South Putnam
The Eagles will feature a blend of old and new this season depending on which team one looks at.
South Putnam returns two of the top male runners in the county in Dunkin York and Keaton Chew while returning a solid supporting cast in seniors Matt Rogers and newcomer Harry Eaglin, juniors Emilio Gallegos, Evan Hinkle and Griffin Jones and sophomore Noah Couch.
The Eagles also bring in four freshmen in Gabe Feltner, Isaac Boyce, Landon Chew and Gunner Roach.
On the other side, senior Hope Taylor is the only returning runners with several newcomers in junior Stevie Keenan and freshmen Addison Gibson, Jasmine Guzman, Bailey Haddon, Elise Kendall and Molly Trammell looking to anchor the lineup for the next few years.
“We’ve looked OK,” South Putnam head coach Brandon Welti said. “We have a very interesting group of kids that, if nothing else, get along really well together.
“At our team retreat, they united around some common goals and they’re a fun group to be around. They’re motivated and in a good state mentally, so it’s a matter of getting them into a good state physically as well.”
Welti added York and the elder Chew would drive the boys’ team once again, with York coming in off an appearance at the semistate last year.
“Behind Dunkin and Keaton, Evan Hinkle had a really good track season, improved his fitness and confidence and should be a great contributor,” Welti said. “Gabe Feltner had a really good middle school season so it’s about making the transition to high school running in terms of intensity and staying healthy.
“Harry Eaglin never ran before but decided to give it a try as a senior. Those guys are our most likely scoring five but we do have a couple of young guys that might throw their hat in the ring once they get more training in.”
With such a young squad on the girls’ side, Welti said Taylor’s role was increased on top of being the only returning runner and a senior.
“Hope is our only returning, so on the one had there is the sadness of her friends being gone but it’s balanced with stepping up and getting the new kids pointed in the right direction,” Welti said. “We got together with her and asked her where she wanted this team to go, so we’ll be interested how things shake out.
“We have five freshmen and a junior that has never run before coming in. Kendyl ran well in middle school and shows she has a quite a bit of potential, so again it’s about adjusting to high school running and, if things go smoothly, she could turn some heads as the season goes forward.”
The Eagles won’t start the season this weekend after the Keith Puckett Invitational was cancelled, instead starting at Southwestern the following week, but Welti said that would continue to give the team a chance to work together and sort itself out ahead of what would be an enjoyable year.
“One thing I can count on, as both teams practice together and operate as one squad, is we have great leadership, especially from the guys,” Welti said. “Keaton is the most encouraging kid I’ve ever worked with and his motivating and cheering others on is contagious to the point others have openly talked about wanting to be more like him. Dunkin is another guy that is a great teammate to others.
“Regardless of the results, this is a group that will be working hard, putting forth their best effort, continually improve and have fun at the same time, so even if we aren’t winning meets, I can count on this team to do those things.”