Beginning anew
McDonough boys soccer looks to rebuild program with two new coaches
Although he is heading into his first year as the head coach of the McDonough High School boys soccer team, Mike Deeds and assistant Rony Cantoral-Linarez arrive with a bevy of coaching experience in the county at the club level and this fall the Rams will have 10 seniors on the roster.
McDonough won only two games overall last fall, one in the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference, but Deeds is confident the progress for this year’s senior-laden squad will not be entirely measured in wins and losses. Deeds is hopeful the Rams current squad will lay the foundation for a program that could be successful into the next decade when two of his sons will play for the team and graduate from the Pomfret school.
“We’re not just looking at what we can do this year,” said Deeds, who also coaches a club team in La Plata. “We’re looking to build the program here and do well for the next five, six years at least. We’ve got a really good group of seniors, but we also have a number of promising juniors on the team. We had 35 kids try out and we didn’t cut any of them, so we’ll carry 18 on varsity and 17 on JV.”
Among the 10 seniors on the McDonough boys soccer team this fall is Trevor Drummond, perhaps largely more affiliated with the Rams baseball team as well as the La Plata American Legion Post 82 team that won the state title this summer. Drummond missed most of his junior baseball season with a knee injury, but he pronounced himself fit for the fall slate.
“I’m completely healthy,” Drummond said while taking a water break at last Tuesday’s practice. “I’m not as in shape as a lot of these guys. They
were playing soccer all summer and I was playing baseball. But I’m good now. I like the new coaches. I think all of us have a whole different attitude this
year. We’re hoping to win a few games this year.”
In addition to Drummond, McDonough will have Manuel Arriola, Denver Bennett, Erik Carson, Emer y Kitts, Thomas Mahr, Peyton Mills, Sebastian Riggs, Noah Zeitler, T.J. Lannister and Robert Morales on the field at
most times. Morales, whose family relocated to the United States from El Salvador several years ago, has impressed Deeds with his skills and quickness to learn the English language.
“We have mostly seniors this year, but a couple of our juniors like T.J. and Robert are going to
be starters,” Deeds said. “Really, we still have not decided on a starting goalie at this point. But this is a great group of kids. They’ve really been quick to adapt to everything that we’ve been teaching them. Now we’re hoping the work shows up in a few more wins on the field.”
McDonough will open the season at Great Mills at 6 tonight and will have future SMAC games this month against Patuxent (Sept. 12), Westlake (Sept. 15), Calvert (Sept. 19), Thomas Stone (Sept. 20) and Leonardtown (Sept. 25).