Every high school soccer team across the Mountain State starts the season with the hopes of playing for a state championship.
Some of those hopes are realistic and some, in all honesty, are just a dream.
The Woodrow Wilson boys soccer team clearly falls into the realistic category heading into the 2024 season.
“It is always our goal and I think this group has the capability of it,” head coach Steve Laraba said. “But, in terms of the number of players that have experience on the field at the high school level, we are still very young.”
While the Flying Eagles own a locker room full of talent, they will still need to replace a few solid players lost to graduation like Aiden Bell and Cooper Bell, along with Shamad Wynne-Thompson and all-stater Tyler Randolph.
The Bell twins will be playing in the fall for Washington & Jefferson College, while Wynne-Thompson will play for Concord University.
Even with those key losses, Laraba is confident his team can once make a run at postseason success.
“I think we are really only throwing two players in this year that didn’t get a lot of minutes late. They have grown and matured and stepped up really well to where it is not going to be that much of a letdown,” Laraba explained. “Even though they are capable, the high school game is different than the club game. Games are during the week and at night plus you are playing kids that could be older than you. Things like that.”
Over the last couple of seasons, Woodrow Wilson has pressured opposing defenders with an array of scoring threats.
Junior Coby Dillon led the team in goals scored last season and he will be joined by senior Tyler Snyder to anchor the front line of the scoring third.
“Obviously we will want that again and will look to them for goals, but we also have players in lots of different areas that are very capable of creating their own opportunities and creating opportunities for other people,” Laraba said. “You can’t decide you are just going to take one player out of the equation for us because if you do, then the others punish you for not giving them the proper level of respect and attention.”
A.J. Bishop is projected to step into a starting role in the midfield for his senior season where he will share minutes with fellow senior Michael Fayiah and a trio of talented sophomores, Vince Umberger, Hagen Hall and Ali Farghaly.
“Vince Umberger is going to be very good in there. He has a great mind for the game and a good skill set,” Laraba said. “Ali Farghaly is going to be a pain in a lot of people’s backside. Michael Fayiah and Hagen Hall are going to be really good for us on the wings.”
Finding good scoring chances against the Flying Eagles has not been easy and that trend will likely continue this year. A year ago, Woodrow Wilson recorded 14 clean sheets in 21 matches.
“We have four or five really good defenders that we can utilize. Tyler Radford (junior), Jackson Shroeder (junior), Jackson Gray (junior) and Jonathan Scott (junior),” Laraba said. “Ayden Stafford (senior) is a player that can fill in the back and on the wings as well. We have a couple of different options.”
Junior Bryson Doss held teams in check between the pipes in 2023, but he has received some strong competition from senior Ryder Cogar for the starting keeper position this year.
“It is going to be a battle. It is always good, but it’s also tough when you have two really good goal keepers,” Laraba admitted. “Everybody wants a No. 2 that can be a No. 1, but no No. 2 wants to be a No. 2 and that is where both of them are right now. They support each other so well and they work so hard. Honestly, in that spot I feel like we are well covered. Whoever ends up in that spot is going to be very good for us.”
Woodrow Wilson hits the ground running by hosting state runner-up Hurricane Thursday, Aug. 22 to open the regular season before traveling to state semi-finalist Morgantown two days later. Game three will be with Class AA-A defending state champion Point Pleasant at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex.
“We wanted Hurricane on the schedule and they said they could play Aug. 22 and I said alright, lets do it. We traditionally always started with Morgantown on that first Saturday before they moved the start date for games up,” Laraba said. “We are going to find out early because we scrimmage two really good teams and our first two games are against high level teams.”
All three sectional clashes will take place in September with the Flying Eagles playing Oak Hill (5th) and Greenbrier East (19th) on the road, sandwiched around a home game with Princeton (12th).
