Elmira District Boys Soccer

Star-Gazette 

By Andrew Legare • alegare@gannett.com • Staff Writer • August 27, 2009

-->Back-to-back division championships have given the Elmira Free Academy boys soccer team undisputed status as the top dog in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference West division.

But this is high school soccer, where players come and go every year, and where success can be fleeting if you're unable to regroup. If Academy can successfully put it all together again this fall, the Blue Devils have the opportunity to do something special by claiming three straight division titles.

"I think we've restarted a good tradition at Academy in the last three years and I hope they keep that going in future seasons," said EFA head coach Derek Hamilton, whose team beat Susquehanna Valley last year for the STAC tournament championship.

Much of Academy's success in the division race has to do with its success against division opponents. Hamilton teams have gone 13-3-2 against STAC West foes over the last three years, with games against STAC Metro teams also factoring into the division standings.

The other three teams in the West -- Corning, Horseheads and Southside -- are certainly familiar with Academy's newfound division dominance and are intent on finding a way to stop it.

"Until someone unseats them, they're the team everyone is going to look to bring their 'A' game against," said Curt Grottenthaler, who's in his 12th season as head coach at Horseheads.

Said Corning coach Chad Freelove of EFA: "Until they're knocked off, they've got the bragging rights."

Horseheads and Corning each lost only two starters, so those teams are primed to make things interesting in the division this season.

STAC West Team Capsules

 

CORNING DISTRICT

Coach:  Chad Freelove

Last Year's Record:  6-11-1

Season Opener:  Wednesday vs. Horseheads

Season Outlook:  The Hawks have nive of 11 starters back, including three players named to the STAC West All-Division team:  junior center midfielder Sam Schirmer, and senior forwards Jesse Martinez and Nicholas Jacobson.

Other returning starters are senior centerback Caleb Noel, senior right back Andrew Ortiz, senior right midfielder Anthony Pavlick, junior center midfielder Zach Dann, and senior left midfielder Tyler Lucero.  Among the big additions from the JV team are a pair of record-breakers.  Junior goalie Jonathan Howitt set school records for career shutouts (15) and shutouts in a season (10 last year) despite missing eight games as a freshman with a broken hand.  Julian LaDelia, a junior forward, set Corning JV records for career goals (28) and goals in a season (25 in 15 games last year).

Said Freelove: "The committment level this off-season has been unparalleled to any committment level we've had.  The kids are working harder than any group i've had--therfore, they're more prepared than any group i've had.  Now they just have to execute. 

 

ELMIRA FREE ACADEMY

Coach:  Derek Hamilton

Last Year's Record:  10-7-2

Season Opener:  Monday, at Binghamton

Season Outlook:  Academy's season ended with a loss to Owego on penalty kicks in the Section 4, Class A semifinals.  There's a pretty good chunk of last year's team back to try to go farther this year.

Returning players include senior midfielder Ross Holden, senior forward Denzel Harris, senior midfielder Charlie Anderson, junior midfielder Nick Lian, junior defender Kevin Kucharski, junior midfielder Kail Burfield, senior defender Cory Swatling, senior midfielder Ben Linchuck, and junior defender Jake Davenport, who returns after suffering a torn meniscus in his knee in the second game of the 2008 season.

Said Hamilton: "We're young again. We were a young team last year.  We're always going to be young because we're the smallest school on our schedule.  Every year, we have four or five ninth or 10th graders...We're well organized, we play a good brand of soccer.  We usually end up playing our best soccer towards the end of the year when everything really counts.

 

HORSEHEADS

Coach:  Curt Grottenthaler

Last Year's Record:  5-11-3

Season Opener:  Saturday, vs. Vestal

Season Outlook:  Horseheads is coming off its worst season in the 12-year tenure of Grottenthaler.  The good news is that most of the players from that team will have the chance to redeem themselves, with 17 players back and only two starters gone.

Said Grottenthaler: "We ended up the second half of the seaosn last year with exactly a .500 record.  We're looking to build off the confidence of those guys...The short term goal is to play to our potential every day and to learn from our mistakes.  Any then obviously we want to compete for a STAC West division title.  Our big thing this year is we want the kids to be coaching themselves on the field.

 

SOUTHSIDE

Coach:  Edgar Zarate

Last Year's Record:  1-15

Season Opener:  Wednesday at Union-Endicott

Season Outlook:  New head coach Zarate, a native of Peru who teaches Spanish at Southside, has nine returning players to help him try to improve on last year's one-win season.

Among those back are senior captains Joe Bates (midfielder), Tyler Galpin (midfielder), and Ryan Murphy (stopper).  Also back are senior midfielder Justin Mason, senior defender Chris Jones, junior midfielder Johnny LaDouce, senior attack Tyler Comstock, senior midfielder Louie Parmalee, and junior midfielder Mike Prunier.

Said Zarate: "My goal for this year is for them to have confidence in themselves.  We have been working intensely with one-touch passes.  I hope this will give us the result to at least hvae more wins.  My goal is that most of the home games we should be able to win."  Zarate, 43, said he's also hoping for more fan support.