Despite losing eight seniors last year, the Hackley Boys soccer team is pumped to get back on the turf for the 2017 season. While the departure of last year’s seniors may present some challenges, the large presence of underclassmen will surge the team to another successful year.

John Gillard, the highly praised coach of the Hornets, is optimistic about the team’s prospects this season. Coach Gillard said, “… every year you lose four to five seniors, so we are used to having to replace those as part of the process. Luckily this year we have a lot of young players who are fitting right in, so I think with the new young talent, we can replace those seniors to some degree.”

Gillard believes that Riverdale and Poly Prep will be their two biggest competitors. The team is facing up against the tough out of league rival, Masters, in their second game of the season, losing 4-3 the previous year.

Star forward and co-captain junior Matt Braver believes that the offensive approach will change because they lost a large group of talented players, he remains hopeful that new freshmen will be valuable assets to the team this year. “We lost a lot of players last year… but we have a lot of good young players and I think they will fill in where the the old players are lost.”