Season Preview: The Last Dance

The Last Dance

Well, this year's senior class and I return for our last dance at Saint Thomas Aquinas. We are looking to keep the party going until that final possible whistle in November.

We said goodbye to some very talented seniors from last year's team, which finished 4th in the state. We lost a lot in the back end of the field as centerback John Weinrich (1st Team), left back, Cooper Welsh (1st team), and goalkeeper, George Guagliano will all be dancing somewhere else this fall.

But with the return of Miles Laws at centerback and Bobby Bjorseth (have you seen his throw-in?) jitterbugging back to left back, we keep our dance card strong. We will also waltz in three more very, very good players that will set up one our best total defenses in a while. Greyson Rutter (a club National Champion) who missed last season with a hip injury will take the other centerback position with returning letter winner, senior Spencer Ragan dropping back to right back. Sophomore Parker Lehn returns with 4 more verticle inches to take over at Keeper. We also have juniors Noah Morgan and Owen Kitts (who will play a lot at the 10 as well) who both can play anywhere in the back. Junior Hank Gassel will be our backup keeper.

Our midfield loses quite a force in Rockhurst University-bound Andrew Muckerman, but we do return one of the area's best in Kansas Preseason All-Stater Joseph Befort at the "6." We offer up several possibilities to pair with him there in juniors Jacob Zinkus, Owen Kitts, and Santiago Wendell (a transfer from Bishop Carroll). Senior Andsew Yibekal and Spence Ragan should get some time there as well. We look to twist either senior David Weinberg or junior Owen Kitts into Muckerman's "10" spot, but we know Spencer Ragan can play there as well. 

Our front line will be another one of our strengths. We did lose first-team All-State Liam Ryan who will be playing at Baker this fall, and we lost in late summer our best returning forward to an ACL tear, Nate LeBourveau, but we will swing junior and national semi-finalist Brody Siebert into that striker position. We bring back senior Omar Sarmiento (Mr. Cross) to play left wing and junior Jayden Janeway (Mr. Baseline) to play right wing; both should cha-cha-cha lots of scoring opportunities in that front third. Senior Liam Lynch, along with juniors Santiago Wendell and Alex Fuentes will see front-third minutes as well.

Our schedule will look a lot like it did last year with the season beginning with a massive Stripeout dance with St. James to be followed a few days later with Pre-Season number one in the country, Rockhurst.

The EKL will be loaded as usual. We will see 6A powers like BV West and BV Northwest to go with 5A powers, St. James and BV Southwest. 4A standout Bishop Miege gears up for an 8-peat I believe.

Our coaching staff will appear a bit different with Holy Spirit teacher, former Marquette goalie, and former Saint Thomas Aquinas state champ, Steven Grow becoming a varsity assistant.

We bring back myself for year 37, Coach Hammons, for year 31, Tim Zande, for year 4, Eric Ewing for year 7, and Will Ragsdale for year 11.

We have a nice opportunity to get to that final mixer on November 9th. We will need to play well enough in our midfield to complement our strong back line and our strong front line. Perhaps we will dance well enough this year to earn a final bow.