Southlake Carroll boys soccer readying for another run at postseason

The Carroll boys soccer team is coming off of a season in which it qualified for the postseason and went two rounds, and coach Greg Oglesby said that this year his team is looking to pick up right where it left off.

The team will be relatively inexperienced heading into the season but Oglesby said that his team will be in good shape when district rolls around.

“It’s a young team, but I think it is going to be an experienced team in terms of the reps they’ve had and the quality of the reps,” Oglesby said. “There’s not a lot of seniors, and we’ll find out how many are going to play. We’ll have a lot of young players, but ones that played last year or played JV, so that’s kind of encouraging.”

Oglesby said he has a player at every level on the field that he expects to be among the team leaders this season, something that bodes well for his younger players.

“We have Duncan Gary coming back and Nick Broadway, and they will be our captains,” Oglesby said. “Duncan will play up top, and Nick will play in the back, and then we’ve got Nat Kajiwara coming back for his third year on varsity in the midfield.”

Carroll lost in the area round last season on penalty kicks, and Oglesby said the expectations for this season is to make another playoff run.

“We are always looking to make the playoffs,” Oglesby said. “That is our first objective. After that, we would like to win a district championship. Within the playoffs, once you get there, its a one and done, so we would like to get to the regional tournament. You’ve got to in a few games to do that, but once you get there, you just have to win a few games to get to state.”

Oglesby said to make the post-season have a run in the playoffs, it will take a couple of things.

“We are going to have to come together,” Oglesby said. “We have a very athletic team, but tactically, we have to learn the scheme that we are going to run and we have to learn our strengths and weaknesses and how to play together.

“Sometimes, with younger teams, that takes a little time, but that is why we have the month of January. We have a lot of games in January, we have three tournaments, and we are going to get a lot of playing time.”

Carroll will play its first scrimmage against Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis on Dec. 30.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Southlake Carroll boys soccer readying for another run at postseason."