This year Tony Gray is the new head coach for Elder’s varsity soccer team, he is the seventh head coach in the history of Elder soccer. Before coaching at Elder, Gray coached at McAuley from 2008-2009 and also St. Ursula Academy. Gray has been head junior varsity coach and assistant varsity coach at Elder since 2012. He brings eight years of high school coaching experience to Elder.

Even though everyone is distracted by the fantastic start of Elder football we shouldn’t forget about how our soccer team is doing. With a new coach they are looking really good with notable wins over Oak Hills 4-2 and St. Xavier 1-0.

I decided to talk to some of the players on the team to ask them how they like the new coach, and how they think they will do the rest of the year.

First, I talked to the starting goalie Jake Helphinstine and asked what he thinks about the new coach.

“He’s a good coach, and an all-around good guy, all of us on the team really have a good connection with him,” said Helphinstine.

I then asked Jake how he thinks the team will do the rest of the year.

“After beating St. Xavier 1-0 I think we have a pretty good shot of going far in the tournament,” said Helphinstine. “St. X was a tough team to beat and if we play like we did against them with every other team on our schedule we will be just fine.”

Junior outside midfielder Stephan Deutenberg thinks the new coach fills the shoes of our former great coach, and really seems to like him. I then asked Stephan how he thinks the tem will do the rest of the year and he said, “Considering we just beat St. X and Oak Hills I think we will do very well.”

Junior midfielder Lukas Deutenberg (Stephan’s cousin) is also on the team. I asked him what he thinks of the new coach and he said that he thinks the players all have really good relationships with him, and the coach always seems to have a good time with us.

I then also asked Lukas how he thinks the team will do the rest of the year. Lukas said, “I think we will do well because we beat X and that will give us a lot of momentum.”

Junior back-up goalie Zach Whelen thinks the new coach is great, and brings a lot to the table. Zach thinks they are going to win  a ring this year.

After talking to those three players I have come to the conclusion that they really like the new coach and think he is doing a good job. It also looks like we should see a great season out of Elder Soccer this year.