The boys last year were mostly made up of seniors who have played together and trained together since they were freshmen which had a big impact on the team’s performance the last four years. At Regionals Southeast went against Garden city and Wichita East. Wichita Southeast scored 2-0 over Garden City And had lost 2-1 to Wichita East. Even though they had lost to Wichita East, Southeast had built a name for themselves as the City league Champions. The boys had ended with a successful season of 15 wins and 1 loss.
While most of the senior players are gone, the seniors really left a mark on the team this year and helped them develop their own identity.
“This group has a different characteristic to it, maybe not like the single leadership or anything, but like a team unity and a team energy, a team passion that I’ve never seen before,” head coach Cody Flitch said.
The team started off the new season with a record of 7-0 and had won the Maize south tournament for a second straight year after the Mavericks had won their own tournament for eight consecutive years. The boys have worked hard over the summer putting in work to making all their success possible.
“The way we train it like in the summer, we are training so hard like nobody was sleeping, nobody was relaxing, because we’re running, running and playing on the ball too much so we become good and yeah we train it,” goalkeeper David Mlendja (12) said.
T his year the team has some high expectations after last year’s successful season.
“Everyone’s expecting us to [win the City League] again. I mean, it’s not gonna be light, but, you know, we’re aiming towards it again this year,” team captain Axel Lo (11) said. “…and we’re hoping to go to regionals and get that title back again. Once again, once and for all.”
As the boys have defeated the Mavericks and won the Maize south tournament for a second year, the team has been facing increased competition from other teams as many want to take down the champs and take away their title.
“Yeah people saw how good we did last year and they start to see there’s a lot of eyes on us. We become a target,” Fitch said. “Teams give us their best game. Everyone wants to take down Southeast now, since we were City League champions last year. It puts a target on our back, it makes it harder. But, you know, it’s just part of it. You just do what you can and just play the best you can see what happens.”
Although the soccer team is no longer undefeated as they had lost to Kapaun 3-1. The team is 10-1 overall and 6-1 in first place in the city league.
