By Chris Parker
West Plains boys soccer has a new head coach in Jimmy Miller this season. Miller, who is entering his first season as a high school soccer coach, played for the Zizzers during his high school career. He also coached for 15 years at the youth level.
He takes over a program coming off a 10-win season with five starters returning. He wants to instill an identity of having both mental and physical toughness.
“We want our identity to be that we are a mentally tough and physically tough team who play hard from the defensive third to the attacking third, from first to final whistle,” Miller said. “We want to play with relentless pressure and an attacking mindset and play fast with great individual and team effort, high energy, relentless intensity and good team communication. We never want lack of effort or energy to be the reason we lose.”
Up top, the Zizzers will have to replace the production of the graduated Ethan Tuma who had 29 goals last season.
“We graduated our leading goal scorer from last season in Ethan Tuma, so goal production was a bit of a concern going into the summer,” Miller said. “However, we feel that we have a committee of guys who are very capable at producing goal scoring opportunities and finding the back of the net, whom we can rely on for goal production.”
Hudson Cox returns for his sophomore season after earning all-conference and all-district honors last season. He can play both at forward and midfield. He had a team-high 14 assists and nine goals last season.
“Hudson can play forward and mid both, and will likely do both for us at times, depending on our opponent and where we use other guys as we get into our season,” Miller said. “We feel we have good versatility this year offensively with several guys who could be interchangeable between the midfield and forward positions. Cox sees the field really well, is a dynamic playmaker and has a relentless motor and is very versatile as well. He is a great finisher and facilitator both. He is a very skilled player with a high soccer IQ who is unselfish and has a facilitator first mindset, but he is also very capable of taking over a play and is great at finding moments to produce his own offense wherever he is at on the field when necessary, and I think we will need him to do both of those things for us this year.”
Senior Johnny Sutherland returns after playing some forward and midfield last season scoring seven goals and adding four assists on his way to all-district honors.
“Johnny missed a few weeks of the season last year with injury, but was a big contributor when he was on the field,” Miller said. “Johnny is quick and aggressive and continues to improve his touch and finishing ability. We expect him to take a big step up for us offensively this year and are excited to see his maturation on the field.”
Junior starter Malakai Coy brings back five goals and three assists from last season.
“(Coy) is very skilled with the ball at his feet, a dynamic ball handler, and has a great ability to cut the ball in traffic to create space and separation, and ultimately, get to the goal or to space,” Miller said. “He has good speed and a great left foot when it’s time to shoot or cross the ball. Malakai has the potential to be a big scoring threat for us this year as well.”
Cameron Miller played some forward as a freshman on varsity and was the junior varsity’s leading scorer. He will have a bigger varsity role this season.
“We will look for Cameron to be ready to contribute at the varsity level this season,” Coach Miller said. “Cameron was also an all-state track and field sprinter as a freshman last spring for the Zizzers and was the Ozark Mountain Conference and Class 4 District 6 100-meter champ as a freshman this past spring as well, so, he has a different type of speed. We will certainly try to find ways to utilize his speed and good physicality on the field in a few different ways and in different places, because when in the open field in space, his speed and ability to separate from guys is noticeable, and would be difficult to match or contain for anyone who has that task.”
In the midfield, junior Caleb Cobb is a returning starter.
“Caleb Cobb is a returning starter and will be a big key to our success in possession and setting up attacks in the midfield,” Coach Miller said. “Caleb is very versatile, has a high motor, good speed and has a good feel for the game overall. He has a good first touch and moves well with and without the ball. He defends well and has good ball skills to create space for himself to open up passing and attacking lanes. We will expect him to be a big contributor for us all over the field.”
Senior Julien Ayala will look to provide some leadership in the midfield.
“Julien Ayala will also be relied on to provide good energy and experience and leadership at the midfield position,” Miller said. “Julien is fast, strong, vocal, physical, aggressive and versatile in where he can play, and he will be used in a few different ways for us this year. Julien battled some injuries the past two seasons, but comes back healthy, in great shape and ready to go this year. He finished with three goals and two assists last season.”
Senior Reed Cobb will step on the pitch in the midfield for the first time since playing in junior high.
“Reed Cobb is another newcomer who hasn’t played soccer since junior high but watching him this summer you would never know it,” Coach Miller said. “We expect big things out of him this year. Reed is a big addition to this year’s roster. Reed also kicks for the Zizzer football team. Reed is athletic, smart, strong, physical, aggressive, fast and has a big-time left foot. He continues to knock off the rust with his ball skills and touch and is looking great so far this summer. We are excited to have him.”
The defense will need some retooling after graduating three of the four starters.
Isaac Ayala returns for his sophomore season as the lone returning starter.
“We do return sophomore Isaac Ayala, who had a phenomenal freshman year as a starting varsity center back,” Coach Miller said. “Late in the season last year, Isaac was really the anchor of our defense at center back. Isaac has a great left and right foot, is fast and is a smart defender with a great feel for the game. He plays the ball well on the ground and out of the air both. We expect him to have a breakout year, because the skill and potential to do so is certainly there.”
Cole Talburt will be at defender in his junior season after playing football as a sophomore.
“Cole is everything you want in a defender and a player,” Miller said. “He is coachable, vocal, strong, physical, aggressive and very fast and never takes a play off. He is improving his skills and his touch each week, but those things that you can’t always teach kids, are already naturally there and we are excited to have him back. We expect him to be a nightmare for opposing forwards.”
A quartet of seniors and a sophomore will also be relied upon for minutes on defense.
“We will also look to senior Logan Ray, senior Ian Hufstedler, senior LJ Temple and senior Julien Ayala as well as sophomore Roman Martinez to give us solid minutes on defense,” Coach Miller said. “LJ is a smart and very vocal player who can play both midfield and defender and will give great effort and leadership. He has good height and plays the ball well out of the air. Julien Ayala will also play back for us at times but can also play up. He is super aggressive and quick and has good skills and great physicality, and we will use him in a few different ways this year. Roman played some varsity at times last year as a freshman and has really developed and improved since then and we feel he can contribute for us in the back as well and be very effective. Ian is a big, strong player who uses his size well and can impose his will on others, and we feel he could provide some added size and physicality that we need in the back as well.”
The Zizzers must replace a four-year starting goalkeeper in Lincoln Miller who was a two-time conference keeper of the year. He broke the program career saves record during his four-year run.
Keenan Holloway will step into the role after backing up Miller for his first three seasons.
“Keenan has been with the program since his freshman year and was a varsity back up to Miller for the past three seasons and gained a ton of valuable experience as a JV goalkeeper those years and varsity back up,” Coach Miller said. “This year we expect him to step into the varsity starting goalkeeping role and shine. Keenan is a patient, level-headed, big, strong and experienced goalkeeper who also plays baseball for WPHS, and we have confidence he will do great in a position he is very familiar with, and we plan for him to also be a vocal leader for us in the goal.”
Hunter Lange will be the varsity backup at goalkeeper.
Coach Miller expects leadership in many different ways from many different players.
“Effort and attitudes can be contagious, so we expect everyone on the field to lead in some way,” Coach Miller said. “Whether that be through their effort, their voice, their attitude and/or their body language.”
West Plains also has a strong sophomore group that will provide depth.
“Sophomores Roman Martinez, David Bevel, Avenier Kulakevich, Mason Chambers Andy Moore, Brady Anslem, Eric Rodriguez and Jayden Smith have all shown great strides in the right direction and have all improved since last year, and we are excited to see them continue to develop for us over the next few years,” Coach Miller said. “They are part of a big sophomore class that we have and their improvement since last year as freshman, is very evident. Newcomer junior Cordale Palmer has great potential as does junior Jacob Hutsler and senior Ian Hufstedler has also improved a lot with their leadership, skill and overall athleticism since a year ago.”
Coach Miller said team speed, versatility and experience will be among the advantages West Plains soccer has this season.
“I believe our biggest strengths will be our team speed, our versatility, experience, and hopefully, a relentless style of play,” Miller said. “We have a ton of team and individual speed, with some elite speed in a few places on the field. We have made it a big focus this summer to be more aggressive, more physical and to choose to give better effort consistently and to not take plays off and to not let a negative play carry over into the next play. We want to have amnesia when it comes to mistakes, we just need to learn from it and quickly move on.”
Coach Miller will focus on some soccer fundamentals for improvement with a roster of strong athletes.
“We still need to improve the vocal elements of the game as a team and continue to improve our team possession, first touch and 1-on-1 ball and foot skills in the open field,” Coach Miller said. “We don’t have the luxury in West Plains of having club soccer opportunities. In fact, only two players on our JV and Varsity roster play club soccer for clubs out of Springfield. So, we are already behind in experience and skill to many of our opponents who have those extra soccer opportunities outside of high school soccer. However, we do have great athletes, so we must use what little time we do have to focus on improving those necessary soccer skills and ball touches to give ourselves a better chance to compete with those programs who may have rosters with several skilled and more experienced club players. We also need to continue to improve our mental toughness and play with a “next play” mentality and never make excuses or point fingers when things don’t go our way or when adverse challenges come up, which they inevitably will.”
West Plains opens the regular season on Aug. 30 at New Covenant.
“Our expectation is that we play with great preparation, effort and focus, and focus on the things that we can control as players and as a team,” Coach Miller said. “We want to win those close one to two goal games that last year we fell short in. I believe we lost six games last season by just one or two goals. We expect to believe that we can be competitive within our conference and be competitive in every game we play in for that matter.”
