Spotlight on ATC soccer
Several seniors are set for first game six years after students lobbied school to start varsity team
The biggest foe Avi Pope and the seniors of the Academy for Technology and the Classics boys soccer program faced was fate, and it’s not just because they haven’t played an opponent yet.
It seemed fate was determined to defer their dreams of playing varsity soccer. Before the seniors even practiced for the first game, they face delays because of odd circumstances and the lack of a field before finally making their dream come true.
The Phoenix will play their first match Tuesday six years after those seniors, which included Pope, when they were seventh graders, lobbied the school to form a boys soccer program.
They persevered even though ATC lacks a soccer field, so the team had to find available fields, which were hard to find considering three other city schools (Tierra Encantada, Monte del Sol and Santa Fe Waldorf) also deal with the same problem.
During the group’s sophomore year, the wannabe Phoenix elected to not play so a senior could finish playing his career at Santa Fe High. Had ATC began competing that year, he would have lost his eligibility to play on a varsity team, Pope said.
“We wanted to play soccer and he wanted to play,” Pope said. “We weren’t going to stop him.”
When the school finally gave the group a program that would begin during the 2020-21 school year, the coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans. Not even the hiring of former Capital head boys coach Eugene Doyle, who led the Jaguars to a Class 4A state title, could create the breakthrough the seniors wanted.
So, they waited for July, when a small group of players began workouts. Slowly, participation increased until 26 players filled the roster. Drills
gave way to instrasquad scrimmages. On Tuesday, scrimmages will turn into matches as ATC’s first official match will take place against Santa Fe High’s junior varsity.
The way Pope sees it, good things come to those who wait.
“It all worked out,” Pope said.
In some cases, an inaugural season means growing pains as players learn a coach’s system and develop chemistry. Doyle acknowledges there is plenty of room for growth in both areas, but he sees a team that can compete in Class 1A-3A’s District 5, which includes Monte del Sol, Questa and Tierra Encantada. In fact, he used that philosophy in recruiting an eighth grader at the school to compete for the varsity. Doyle hopes it worked.
“I was like, ‘Hey do you wanna win trophies? Do you wanna fill up our trophy case?’ ” Doyle said. “I told him, ‘Come on, you could play for me for five years.’ ”
Even if that pitch doesn’t work, Doyle feels he has players who are skilled and knowledgeable in the sport because they played either in the Northern Rio Rapids Soccer club or with La Liga’s youth division. The group includes Pope, one of the team captains and a starting forward. Doyle added he visited the campus several times to recruit players to the team, and he ended up with a mix of seniors and underclassmen that should help him get the program off the ground quickly.
“They were having a school barbecue and I went and pounded the hallways,” Doyle said. “I talked to every kid in the school trying to get them all to sign up, and I got a bunch of guys out.”
Doyle’s enthusiasm for his new program and the sport has been infectious. Pope said Doyle can be intense and demanding, but also knows how to crack jokes and keep the mood light.
“He is an absolute pleasure,” Pope said. “He’s a very fun coach to play with. We’ve had problems in years before with other sports, where coaches are just mean or whatever, but he is a genuinely fun guy to be with. We feel like he’s one of us. He has a great passion for the game, and we do, too.”
Still, Doyle knows there will be hiccups, and some of them will come out of nowhere. On Wednesday, Doyle said he had a bag of 10 soccer balls stolen from his truck as he went to get gloves for practice. It left him with just eight balls for practice, but he also recognized that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
“I was going to go chase the guy [who stole the bag], but I was like, ‘That’s just a hundred dollars’ worth of balls, do you really need to go chase him?’ ” Doyle said.
After all, Doyle prefers to chase after more tangible goals, like district titles, state tournament appearances and eventually, state championships. He helped it happen at Capital, and created a juggernaut of a program that routinely drew more players than the football team. Why not at ATC, and why not now?
“I wanna get geared up for districts and then I want to win district,” Doyle said. “I wanna beat Monte and I want to beat Tierra and I want to beat Questa, and I want to get the district championship and make it to the state tournament.”
Meanwhile, Pope is taking a more measured approach. After all, he waited six years to get his chance.
“I don’t want to say anything other than, ‘We’ll see,’ ” Pope said. “But I think it’s really great how excited he is.”