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Page 59 March 2016 By Josh Cutlip Arcadia boys soccer has thrived under new coach Michael Van Ess. In his second year as head coach for the varsity program, Van Ess has put the team through a complete flip, and guided them to a playoff spot for the first time in seven years with a record of 9-2-1. “This is the first time we’ve made the playoffs in seven years, which is great. And we actually won our section, which is phenomenal,” said Van Ess. The Titans ultimately lost to their first round opponent, however this marks a turning point for the program. After taking the position, Van Ess saw a team with a lack of structure that he intended to fix with work on and off the field. Making grades can be a challenge for any student athlete, and Van Ess said that only 12 of the 22 team members were eligible by the first practice. “Luckily, we had a three week window in there before our first game, and we had everyone eligible before that first game,” said Van Ess. The sudden rise in grades can be credited to captain Jack Spier who created a tutoring system within the soccer program, where anyone in danger of losing eligibility would be able to sign up for tutoring before school, after school or during lunch. “They held it in my room and it’s where soccer players would tutor other soccer players. It was for the whole program, it wasn’t just for varsity,” said Van Ess. “The kids would set up a time to meet with a tutor at lunch or before school, put their name down, what subject they needed help in and then another one of the soccer players either on varsity or JV would sign up to tutor them, and that helped a lot.” Although the tutoring proved helpful in regards to getting the whole team involved during the games, they would not have had the same turnout without recruiting and advertising. “This year was really something special. We seemed to defeat all odds: starting off with a team of 12, and gradually finding the right pieces to form our team,” said Spier. Coach Van Ess also added that the soccer team created the Arcadia Soccer Club, which is open to boys and girls, with the intention to hold open field sessions during the offseason. Van Ess said he found a few interested players just by hosting open field. With the pieces he needed, Van Ess was able to implement a structured practice schedule that included endurance training with skills training, as opposed to just in-practice scrimmaging. “In practice, we run a lot of offense versus defense half-field drills, and getting kids familiar with different positioning. I do emphasize a big part of the game is obviously running and endurance, so we work on a lot of endurance type drills where I would run the kids nonstop for all of practice on some days, and then we would go on group runs. We would work on getting their endurance up before the beginning of the season.” Van Ess brought new insight to how the program should be run, and although it caused some problems early on, the team quickly fell into a rhythm. “I had a great group of kids to uphold my expectations of a great program and the soccer team this year, and I had a lot of young leadership carrying it out. I think they were pleasantly surprised,” said Van Ess. The young leadership Van Ess refers to came from seven underclassmen – all of which were starters. Van Ess has a hopeful outlook for the future of the program based on the experience of his young team and the buzz about boys soccer that is floating around the school. “Just seeing the team’s success on ANN [Arcadia News Network], our news network, I’ve had two or three kids come up to me and say, ‘Hey, do you mind if I try out next year?’” said Van Ess. With great performance from a young team like this, there are bound to be high expectations for the upcoming years for the varsity team. “With our great coaches and supporters, we were bound to make major accomplishments,” said Spier. “Hopefully the momentum from this season will carry on next year.” ;           The AHS varsity soccer team with new coach, Michael Van Ess. 9    < = "    This season the boys won 11 games, defeating Chandler Prep in the finals of their Championship, 4-0. The girls soccer team recently capped an undefeated season by winning the Championship for the 2nd straight year.