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Simley boys' soccer rides success with fun, without expectations

By BRYCE EVANS, Special to the Star Tribune, 10/11/14, 6:15PM CDT

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Simley boys’ soccer has flourished with a simple approach that relies on having no expectations.

 

Junior co-captain Jack Stensgard acknowledges that he didn’t know what to expect from the Simley boys’ soccer squad this fall.

After all, the Spartans graduated a number of key players off a 2013 team that fizzled out early in the Class 1A, Section 4 tournament. Throw in a first-year coach, one who had never been at the helm of a varsity team before this season, and it’s fairly easy to understand Stensgard’s uncertainty.

That first-year coach, Westley Dayus, shared it himself. So he offered a simple solution to the team’s questions about expectations: don’t have any.

“If you have no expectations, then you can play free, you can be free and enjoy yourself,” Dayus said. “That’s what I want them to do. They have enough expectations in school as it is. Being athletes and being good academic students, there’s enough on them already. Soccer should be fun.”

Fun would be the simplest description of the Spartans’ fall thus far.

The more detailed version: Simley started the season on a 6-0-3 run, in which the Spartans gave up only six goals. They finished the regular season 10-3-3, including two 2-1 victories over defending Class 1A champion North St. Paul, and were seeded third in the section tournament.

On Tuesday, Simley dominated an overmatched Liberty Classical Academy squad 9-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

“This [season] has gone better than we would’ve thought,” Stensgard said. “We knew we had some good players, but it was all a matter of putting it together.”

Ball control has been the key for the Spartans this season. Dayus, who heads the Inver Grove community soccer organization that feeds his high school program, said the focus all year has been on fundamentals and technique. His team looks to “little things” that help set up in-game success, he said, such as possession and passing. The Spartans look for quick counters to capitalize on opponents’ mistakes.

The offense has been paced by Admir Elozovic (12 goals), Billy Ross (nine goals) and Jake Myran (12 assists). Nathan Stone, who has seven shutouts, has backstopped the defense in net.

“We just look at development and trying to improve,” Dayus said. “The boys are the ones who do everything. I throw out some ideas or have them try some things [in games], but they’re the ones who’ve done it. They worked so hard to get to this point.”

It’s been a refreshing change in atmosphere for the program, Stensgard said. Senior co-captain Ryan Haala agreed.

“Our record’s been great, but the experience has outweighed that,” Haala said. “It’s fun to win games, but it’s more fun to do it surrounded by this group of guys.”

Haala said he and his teammates don’t have set goals for the rest of the way, but they hope to make a deep playoff run.

“Everything’s just been really different this year,” Stensgard said. “I can’t really say we expected any of it, but now we have a pretty good idea of what we can do.”