BOYS' PREP SOCCER: Central adapting to several changes (8/17)

By CHUCK JONES cjones@thenewsenterprise.com CECILIA – The Central Hardin Bruins have undergone major changes since the end of last season. The Bruins, who finished 5-7-6 last season, must replace seven graduated players, including their top two scorers in Charles Haywood and Brian Donahue and goalie Alex Greenwell, who limited opponents to 1.4 goals a game last season. Not to mention head coach Derek Willis resigned after six seasons to take the Georgetown College head coaching job. Central Hardin brought in a quality replacement in Mike Wiersema, who has more than 400 victories in coaching stops in Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas as well as NAIA Alderson Broaddus in West Virginia. “The kids have been great,” Wiersema said. “They’ve been working hard. We’re hardly a finished product. Everybody has made me feel right at home. It’s been a nice transition.” Wiersema said he has three simple goals for the Bruins in his first season. “One is to take pride in the Central Hardin shirt, and take pride in your school and community” Wiersema said. “Two is to not lose any games off the field. Three is to enjoy every minute of it.” Junior Dakota Bowen and sophomore Andrew Trombley are battling for the starting goalkeeper’s job. “Our goalkeepers are better than I expected them to be,” Wiersema said. “Both are capable of making the solid plays with the occasional spectacular play.” The back line will be a mix of veterans and youngsters. Sophomore Alex Thompson is slated to play sweeper, while sophomore Brandon Horn should be the stopper. Seniors Nick Laux and Ryan Ortiz, the only senior starters, will be the outside backs. Senior Cody Richardson will see time on the back line as well. “Ideally, you’d want your two seniors in the middle,” Wiersema said. “I want our back line to be more aggressive in the other team’s half to shut off the opponent’s counter attack. I want them to step up and pressure.” In the midfield, junior Matthew Huff and sophomores Zach Laux and Nikos Mastoroudis are in line to start. “I would like us to have some bite defensively and to circulate the ball a little faster,” Wiersema said. “It’s all about making simple passes quickly.” Junior Blaine Brawner, sophomores John Wallace and Taylor Sheeran and freshman Noah Wiersema are battling for playing time at forward. Wiersema said the four players might even see time in the midfield as well. “What I’m looking for from them is consistency,” Wiersema said. “We need to do the simple things instead of going for degree of difficulty.” Wiersema said he thought the Bruins were making progress, but the team didn’t perform well in the first preseason scrimmage. “After the first scrimmage, I have my doubts,” Wiersema said. “I thought we looked rough. We need to show some improvements in our second scrimmage (against the Bruins’ alumni), and continue to improve until the time we hit the field (for our first game).” But Wiersema said he expected the Bruins to go through some growing pains this season as they adjusted to him and vice versa. “We’re young,” Wiersema said. “We have a lot of players returning with some experience, but we’re still young. We’re loaded with sophomores. It’s going to depend on how fast they grow up. “Our speed of play has to improve,” he added. “We’re trying to make things harder than they are instead of making the simple plays. We’re trying to get it that mindset, but it’s going to take some time.” Chuck Jones can be reached at 505-1759