By GAVIN FLASKA
Tiger Media Network
A trip to the state tournament didn’t have the Hays High School boys’ soccer team sitting back and soaking in the praise.
Instead, it was an offseason of physical and mental training to get another step further.
But taking the next step has had to come with patience. The Indians’ season-opening match with Life Prep was canceled. So while other schools began play last week, the Indians didn’t take the field until Tuesday.
Hays High opened the season with a 4-1 win against St. Mary’s Academy in the opening round of the Salina South Invitational in Salina.
HHS head coach Daniel Kelly has high expectations for this year’s team after making the Class 5A state tournament last fall.
“We set our expectations high this year with the success we had last season,” said Kelly, who lost a large senior class to graduation. “We won’t come out and have our expectations lower. We want to get better every year, and with winning the regional title last year, we would like to focus on winning regular-season games to put us in the position not to have to go on the road as much. That was tough on us last season. We want to be able to host and have the other teams come out and play us on our field.”
Last fall, despite a near-.500 record in the regular season, the Indians won two road games in the playoffs at Wichita-Bishop Carroll and Topeka West. That put HHS in the state tournament against perennial power Maize South, which escaped with a 1-0 win.
Eduardo Maldonado, a captain on the team, is excited to take on a leadership role this fall.
“I am very blessed to be a captain; our teammates actually voted on it,” he said. “I want to lead by example, and I want to do everything I can to get the win for our team.”
Team chemistry is important for the team to elevate its performance.
“We are closer and more connected; everyone is on the same page and most of all, we are hungry,” Maldonado said. “We absolutely want to win, and we will try our hardest to do that.”
This story was written as part of INF 322: Sports Writing, a course in the Department of Informatics at Fort Hays State University.