The DeKalb County High School Tigers Soccer Team is readying for its season, and if its preseason games are any indication, the team looks to have a very good year ahead. Head Coach Dylan Kleparek says his team is young, but the players have experience.
"We’re looking pretty good this year I think," Coach K told the Review. "We’ve got a lot of good players coming back. We’re kind of young, we only have three seniors, but we’ve got some good talent and a lot of juniors coming back. They have a lot of experience, and we expect to have a good team this year."
Coach K said that during the previous season many of his then sophomores were on the field, and that experience is showing this year. "A lot of my juniors got to play as sophomores last year, so that helps build up our team. I think we’ve got a pretty good group."
One thing that has changed is the schedule for the 2014 season. Coach K says the schedule shows some tougher competition, but the Tigers will be ready. "We’ve got a tough schedule. We’ve got Siegel as our first regular season game at home. Our non-district games are Siegel, Smyrna, Cookeville, Crossville, White County, and Warren County. They’re all AAA opponents, so we have a tough schedule."
"I upped the schedule a bit," Coach K continued. "We’ve got some new teams added into our district this year with Goodpasture, Merrol Hyde, and Macon County. They have a wide range of players that can come in and they’re usually pretty good. We took out Friendship Christian, so I think the district got a little stronger too. It’s a tough schedule, hopefully preparing us for the regional tournament."
On Mar. 8, the DeKalb County Tigers hosted a playday, where teams meet and face each other during some real-time preseason competition. The day-long event pitted the Tigers in four different games against three different opponents.
For the first game the Tigers took on Cannon County. Micah Merriman had one goal, while Eli Lomas came away with two. Miguel Rodriguez and Brandon Leiser each recorded an assist during play. DCHS Goalie, Skylar Pease had seven saves in the match. The Tigers took the win, 3-0.
Next DeKalb played Stone Memorial and the game was a close one. Lomas had the games only score, getting one goal, while Pease had four saves. DeKalb came away with the second win of the day, 1-0.
Later, the Tigers faced off with a team from Smith County and recorded their third win of the day. Lomas had the only goal for the entire game, while Pease had three saves. DCHS got the 1-0 victory.
The Tigers later faced off with White County, and again Lomas would come out with a goal. Rodriguez also had a goal, and Pease had three saves in the game. White County was able to get a goal, but DeKalb took another win, 2-1.
The win would match the first place Tigers against the second place team for the day. Again, DeKalb would face White County in what would turn out to be a battle. The game went scoreless through regulation, and fell to a penalty kick shootout. The Tigers would end the game with a victory, winning by one extra goal.