Friends’ Central goalie Max Mattioni makes a save.
Wynnewood >> Friends’ Central boys’ soccer head coach Galen Guindon’s message was loud and clear.
“Stay positive,” Guindon urged from the sidelines. “Stay positive. Good things are happening.”
It’s a mindset that Guindon encourages each season, but this year it’s especially important for his squad to take heed. The Phoenix graduated a huge class from last fall’s Friends’ Schools League playoff qualifier, leaving Guindon with one of his youngest teams yet in his eight years as head coach.
Only one senior, centerback Sevag Yepoyan, is in Guindon’s typical starting lineup. Junior midfielder Jared Lonner is the team’s lone returning starter.
After that, it’s a whole bunch of fresh faces, requiring everybody from the coach on down to stay optimistic and focus on getting better, day by day.
“Last year, we had a deep team, and this year it’s a lot different,” Lonner said. “But I think it’s a good challenge, I know our team will build and grow and become the team that we were last year. I know we have it in us.”
There were nine senior starters in last year’s Phoenix starting 11, forming a massive part of the core for the first two years that Yepoyan and Lonner were on the varsity squad. That group included Lonner’s older brother, Carson Lonner, as well as fellow co-captains Liam Sullivan and Mason Davis.
The first practices of the 2019 preseason proved quite eye-opening for the few holdovers.
There were only two seniors on the team, Yepoyan and Anthony Cianfrani. Seven juniors, six sophomores, three freshman and an eighth-grader rounded out the roster. Even though last year’s seniors had done their best to prepare the next group of upperclassmen to take their turn, it was still a shock to the system for Yepoyan and Lonner, this year’s co-captains.
“Seeing all the new kids, it was like ‘wow, this is our team this year,’” Yepoyan said. “It was mostly looking around, seeing what we can work with. I saw a lot of potential in every single kid, so just finding out their strengths and weaknesses and going from there.”
“It wasn’t too easy coming in,” Lonner said, “but I think we’re all learning and on the same page.”
The key, as Guindon keeps emphasizing, is to stay as upbeat and positive as possible.
“I think it’s a part of our program’s philosophy, positivity in how we work with each other, how we speak to each other, especially when you’re in the game and things aren’t going well,” said Guindon, who played center midfielder at Goucher College after graduating from Friends’ Central in 2006. “Preaching that we need to stay positive and give positive communication in the hardest moments is something we practice and talk about in team events, and then hope that it translates onto the field.
“It’s something central to how we are as a program.”
Both Yepoyan and Lonner talked about how the most important thing last year’s seniors taught them was not any specific on-field skill, but instead how to communicate the way Guindon and his staff require.
“Instead of just, ‘why did you do this, don’t do that,’ it’s more of ‘next time, if you’re in that situation, look to play this way or that way,’” Yepoyan said. “It’s telling them what they should do next time. It’s also in the way you say it, the tone of how you say it. You shouldn’t yell but you should be a bit authoritative, so you’ve got to watch how you say it and what you say.”
“The way they conveyed their messages were very constructive and helpful and not derogatory,” Lonner agreed. “I think that’s really useful on this team because with a lot of young players, it’s bad to talk down on them. So you really need to lift them up and work with them.”
One place where the youth movement has really taken hold is in goal.
The Phoenix have two freshmen goalkeepers, Max Mattioni and Milan Pappas, who are splitting time.
In Friends’ Central’s last game before the beginning of league play, a 3-0 loss to Episcopal Academy on Sep. 13, both Mattioni and Pappas made several terrific saves in a game that was 1-0 from the 8th minute until the 68th, before a couple late tallies by an experienced EA squad closed it out.
“They’re doing really well,” Lonner said of the two impressive young backstops. “They’re making big saves, they’re bonding really well with the team, they’re connecting well, and I’m excited to see what they do in the next three or four years.”
Though Friends’ Central took away a victory in just one of its first six games of the season as of Sept. 16, there’s still plenty for Guindon and his leaders to be excited about.
In addition to the strong play in goal, sophomore midfielder Dylan Posencheg has emerged as a playmaker in the middle, while junior forward Thabo Tsotetsi, sophomore forward Sam Gerber and sophomore midfielder Hugh Shields all like to push the tempo up top. The backline is solidifying, led by Yepoyan alongside juniors Pat Ryan, Eric Lillard and Finn Kent. And on the right wing, eighth grader Mason McCrea has earned a spot in the starting lineup, where he’s quickly adjusting to the varsity level.
They’re positive about that.