Philipsburg-Osceola boys' soccer preview

Vinny Pezzimenti

Head coach: Brian Fenton (12th year)

Photo submitted

Returning letterwinners for the Philipsburg-Osceola boys’ soccer team are, from left, front row: Karl Gassmann, Derek Diehl, Alex Boumerhi; Back row: Josh Cowher, Nate Horner, Chris Eason. Missing is Greg Kojadinovich.

View larger

Assistant coaches: Ryan Long

Last season: 3-12-3

Key losses: Evan Butter-worth, Jake Henzel, Andrew Taylor, Steve Lazar

Returning letterwinners: Josh Cowher (Sr.), Nate Horner (Jr.), Karl Gaffmann (Jr.), Chris Eason (Jr.), Derek Diehl (Jr.), Alex Boumerhi (So.), Greg Kojadinovich (So.)

Key newcomers: Alex Gray (Fr.), Taylor Golemboski (Fr.), Caleb Henry (Fr.), Jay Prentice (Fr.)

The skinny: The core of the team will be made up of Cowher, Horner, Gaffman and Kojadinovich. Cowher is entering his third year as the starting goalie, Horner is the leader on defense, and Gaffman and Kojadinovich started last year as midfielders. ... At 22 players, Fenton has his largest roster in 10 seasons and P-O will field a junior varsity team for the first time in years. ... P-O is young, with Cowher serving as the team’s only senior starter. Fenton says four incoming freshmen could play key roles.

Coach Fenton says: “What (the bigger roster) is doing for us is providing some competiton at practice. In the past, when we’ve had a roster of 15 or 16, seriously we’ve had guys who had to play varsity who, if we had true numbers, it would’ve been a challenge for them to start JV. We’ve had some young guys thrown into the fire. I think this year it’s going to pay off.”

“Right now, I’m looking at us being a surprise team. I don’t know how many wins that’s going to equate to, but we’ll be better. Whether it means we’re extremely competitive against the better teams or we win a couple of games that on paper we shouldn’t win or we have a chance at the end of the season to have a winning record, somehow we’re going to be a surprise in one of those ways. I like the group of kids I have. It’s just the fact that we’re pretty young. Kids are just going to have to grow up fast and adapt to speed of play and the physicality of high school soccer.”