Champlin Park has defeated teams ranked in the Class 2A coaches’ poll in back-to-back games, with a 3-2 road win over No. 10 Minneapolis Southwest on Tuesday and a 4-1 home victory over No. 6 Maple Grove on Thursday.
But you wouldn’t know about the success by talking to Rebels senior attacker Abdul Haji.
“We don’t care about our opponents,” Haji said after scoring two goals in the win over the Crimson. “We do our thing and get the result.”
Champlin Park is 6-2 this season, a far cry from last year when it went 3-10-3 and finished 10th in the 14-team Northwest Suburban Conference.
The Rebels may have already doubled last year’s win total, but coach Scott Dossett says that the number of wins doesn’t enter the players' minds during games.
“Not at all,” Dossett said. “(The mentality has) always been the same - to be better at the end of the year than we were at the beginning.”
Dossett has stressed this season that the process is more important than the end result.
“The results are just part of the process,” he said.
The focus has trickled down to Dossett’s players, who have completely bought into the philosophy.
“We focus on what builds up to the result,” Haji said.
Against Maple Grove, Haji’s focus was also on scoring.
Champlin Park entered the second half leading 2-0 on goals by senior attacker Mike Biah and senior midfielder Eze Amajuoyi.
“I told myself I was going to score,” Haji said. “(I’m) happy enough to bury two away.”
One of his two goals came as Haji calmly drilled a penalty kick into the upper left corner of the net.
Senior defender and captain Paul Winkelmann has been a member of the Rebels’ varsity squad for three seasons and said the entire team has made a commitment to the process.
“It comes from the bottom to the top and the top down,” Winkelmann said.
“We’re all a big family,” he added. “We all contribute to everything that needs to be done.”
