Yoe soccer team ready for playoffs this season
The Yoemen soccer team fell short of their goal and missed the playoffs last season. This season the Yoemen intend to have a much better year and to make it into the playoffs. This year, they have a new head coach, Ian Potthoff. Potthoff was the assistant coach last year, and this season he has been moved up to the head coach.
“Becoming the new head coach of the boys’ soccer program here at Cameron Yoe was a welcome surprise,” Potthoff said. “Being somewhat new to the coaching profession, I knew I had to step up and learn how to be a head coach very quickly.”
This year the Yoemen will have a young as they will have only four returners that were on varsity last year. Those four returners are Jacob Villa, Jesse Martinez, Cesar Munoz, and Jonathon Clouse. Jesse Martinez is the lone senior who was a starter last year. They will only have four seniors on the team: Angel Martinez, Jesse Martinez, Loagan Cole, and Edgar Garcia.
This year is expected to feel like a more normal season after last year was plagued with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Coach Potthoff and the team are not focused on COVID and are just focused on the season ahead and playing good, solid soccer.
“This off-season does feel like we are getting back to a sense of normalcy,” Potthoff said. “COVID is not in the back of my mind or our boys’ minds going into the season.”
Coming into this season, Potthoff has high hopes for this team and sees lots of potential for them to have a great season, despite the obvious amount of youth on the roster. Even with the limited number of returners and seniors, he feels this group can make some noise going into the season and even have a chance at postseason play.
“This year’s roster is extremely young with 5 freshmen and 10 sophomores,” Potthoff said. “They have a lot to learn but are showing me very quickly that they are up to the challenge. The boys are developing chemistry every day, which will serve them well going forward. Although we will probably start off slow, I feel our team has the potential to make the playoffs for the first time in several years.”
This year the Cameron Yoemen will start off their season by hosting an in-season tournament. The tournament will take place from Jan. 6- 8.