By: Jenna Dozeman
Looking back on the 2023 season, the boys soccer team finished with a total of four wins, one tie, and twelve losses. Although this may not sound the greatest, they fought hard in order to keep a majority of the games close in points. At the end of their season, they finished 7th in the OK-Blue conference.
With four wins of the season, the game against Otsego was not necessarily their biggest win. Sometimes, it means more to beat a harder opponent by less than to completely dominate an easier team. Early in the season, the team beat Otsego 2-1, however, they weren’t winning the whole time. They came back with one more goal to save the game. Another great win was against West Catholic with a shutout score of 1-0. These games all “tested our resilience and pushed our boundaries,” according to the head coach, Tyler Robinson.
Even though losing is not fun, it makes you better as an athlete as it drives you to work harder. This year, the toughest losses they faced were the last two games of the conference tournament. They were back and forth-type games but we just couldn’t get a grip on the win.
The seniors, Zinabu Dykstra, Diego Medellin, Bailey Nyhof, Seth Vigil, and Trenton Prince, have just finished their high school soccer career at Hamilton. Their athleticism and energy will be greatly missed in the years to come. They were a strong and skillful crew that will leave a small hole to be filled in next year.
Coach Robinson has been the soccer coach for the girls team for quite some time and he has coached boys varsity soccer around 9 years at Hamilton. When asked about his insight on this past soccer season he said, “The great thing about this past season is that we accomplished two overall team goals: improve on last season’s overall win/loss record and finish higher in the conference than last season. Not only that, the group of guys I was able to work with was a positive, hard-working crew in general.”
Griffin Bolhuis, a sophomore, has been the goalie on Varsity for two years now. “This season was definitely a challenge for the team as a whole seeing as we were still a pretty young team. There were many benefits to this year because it got us way more experienced for seasons to come.” Along with this, he added, “For me personally, this season was my favorite that I have ever played because I really got to know everyone on the team and we shared lots of memories together.”
Justin Stark is a Junior this year and this was his second season on Varsity. “I think that this season we made lots of improvements in many areas but still need to work on others,” he explains, “The season may not have gone the way we originally hoped it would, but we always stuck together and played our best.”
Another Junior, Keegan Johr, just finished his first year on varsity. When asked to recap the 2023 season, he had a little different take on it than how other players looked at it. He said, “This season was good for many reasons, it showed us that losing is part of the process of growing. I think that this season, even though our record wasn’t great, we grew a lot skill wise and as a team overall. It’s going to be hard without the seniors next year but we don’t think it will stop the growth for the program.”
Yes, the season wasn’t the “perfect” season that many had in mind but it was full of opportunities to grow as a player. By playing 17 games this season, they were able to identify some areas to improve on for next year’s season. The team was generally young, with only four seniors, and mostly juniors and sophomores, which will hopefully set next season up for success. As their team continues to train off season, all the hours will go towards a season to beat this years.