By Andrew Holtan
The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS — The soccer season is already in full swing, but there’s still a lot of matches ahead for the Bobcat boys.
Brookings so far is 1-2-1 through four games this season. The Bobcats beat Spearfish 4-0 in their season opener and then played Pierre to a 1-1 draw. They then lost to Tea Area and O’Gorman each by a score of 2-1.
The Bobcats are a senior laden group with nine players in their final year of high school. Brookings head coach Reece Weber said having that experience will help a lot and he’s hoping it translates into success.
“We have nine seniors and eight of them played significant minutes last year. So, we’re starting seven seniors right now, which is pretty important for us to have that leadership and have seven guys that have been involved in the varsity team for a couple years. I’m hoping that the experience from them will pay off this season and that they can help the young guys out in their first year of varsity,” Weber said.
Brookings has two senior captains in Forrest Giard and Jasper Lee. Giard is the captain of the offense as a midfielder and Lee captains the defense as a center back.
“Forrest Giard is a team captain and has been starting on varsity for the past two years. He’ll be important for us playing in the midfield, scoring goals, playing on the ball and helping us control games. Jasper Lee is also a captain who has been starting on varsity for three years at center back. He’s going to be big for us defensively as far as getting us organized and having that experience there on the back line,” Weber said.
Despite the number of seniors, Weber did mention that there are players from other classes that will make an impact for the Bobcats this season, including a team captain.
“Griffin Bachman is our junior captain and he saw significant time last year on varsity, which is good,” Weber said. “He’ll be important to us in the midfield this year. Caylon Peters will be important to us coming off of the bench. Wyatt Cooley and Kyler Soost are both freshmen and they’re going to be playing important roles on the varsity team in the midfield. [Soost] scored a goal in his first ever varsity game, which is pretty cool.
“Eric Anderson will help us out as a junior and Connor Shelden is a sophomore that had a goal and three assists in the first two games, so he’s going to be important for us as well. We have players in every class that are going to contribute this year, which is exciting and bodes well for the future as well.”
Weber is in his third season as the head coach of the Bobcat boys’ soccer team. He is also the executive director of the SoDak Spurs Soccer Club, which is based in Brookings.
Weber noted that the rise in popularity of soccer in Brookings has helped the varsity team, especially since a lot of the players on the high school varsity team also play year round for the Spurs.
“I think with every passing year, as soccer is growing in Brookings with the SoDak Spurs Soccer Club growing bigger, we’re seeing kids that are playing soccer more consistently for longer,” Weber said. “Like for example, the freshmen will have been with the Spurs program for the longest and they’ll have that experience of playing year round and playing consistently when they come in [to the high school program] that maybe the seniors three years ago didn’t have.
“I think that will be important for us going forward and I’ve definitely seen some changes as we’ve moved forward. For me, in my third year, it’s important to have players like [Giard and Lee] who have started for me since my first year as a coach when they were sophomores. Having that consistency helps the team be more stable.”
Brookings has not won a playoff game since the 2017 season. Last year the Bobcats were 5-8-2 and lost to Rapid City Stevens in the first round. Despite the lack of success in recent years, Weber thinks this team has the potential to break through and have success in the postseason. He said that begins with being able to play a first round game in Brookings.
“I always encourage the boys to set loftier goals. As a team we agreed on two goals for this season. The first one is to host the first round of playoffs. That hasn’t been done in awhile, so that’s an important one for me. The other one is to win the conference. I think that’s something that we can achieve this year because I think that this group has the talent, the drive and the energy to do it. Those are loftier goals but I think this team is capable of getting it done,” Weber said.
Brookings hosts Watertown on Thursday at 4 p.m.