York soccer is starting off another year with practices and games all with the effort and tenacity to play well and win as many games as possible.

At this point the team has suffered some losses, but they are aware of where their mistakes are and are actively taking steps to make the team a better functioning body.

“We’re three and three after six games,” said Varsity Coach Lukasz Majewski. “We’ve played a couple of really good games and a couple that were not good at all. Our saying, and I’ve told the boys this already, is that it’s like Christmas with these guys for us coaches. We don’t know what we’re gonna get on any given day. It’s a new present for us. Sometimes we’re very well surprised and sometimes we’re kind of dissapointed.”

The team did have a tough couple of fist games, but it took playing through those to figure out how to work well with each other and meet the challenges of the opposing teams.

“The first game that we lost was against New Trier,” said senior Sam Kritikos, varsity team captain and goalie. “That was a pretty rough loss. [It’s] one of the worst feelings you can have, losing with like 30 seconds left. Our morale was a little down, so the next two games it kinda showed. We were on each other’s backs and lost a lot of team chemistry. We missed a lot of penalty kicks. But the next two games, once we found our rhythm again, have been great.”

Part of what makes this year challenging for the players is the different nature of the varsity team as opposed to prior years. Specifically, the increase in younger players.

“The losses so far are kind of expected because we do have five sophomores on the team and a mixture of seniors and juniors mashing together,” said Coach Majewski. “I don’t necessarily know if we’ve found our identity. Like I said, some of the younger guys have to figure out that this is varsity soccer. Everyone is just as fast and just as strong. And with the older group, they need to accept the younger guys and what they bring to the table.”

The main cause for this influx in varsity numbers is found simply in the current student body’s interest in the York Soccer program.

“With the program, we’re getting an influx of more and more talent and kids coming out,” said Coach Majewski. “We had huge numbers for tryouts at all levels. With that, you have more of a chance to select and pick your teams. That’s good because our teams are growing and, as a result of that, we are competitive at all levels. At the varsity level we’re getting more and more talented players out here. It’s not just running fast and being the strong, physical person, but it’s the skill and the ability to see the game that counts.”

With this influx of new younger varsity players, the responsibility of the team captains is even larger as they need to bring the diverse team together.

“There’s a lot of sophomores on the team,” said Joe Chornij, senior and varsity captain. “I think a lot of them don’t know how fast and physical the play is this year. So just bringing the intensity will allow us to show them what to expect in games.”

In thinking about how to lead the varsity team to victory, the captains find themselves looking back on their own experiences to help them realize what they can do to help out the team.

“My freshman and sophomore years were a little more athletic based,” said Joe Reinhofer, senior and varsity team captain. “Now it’s more soccer specific guys playing. Guys who either consider soccer as their main sport or their only sport. It’s kind of a different style of play between athletes and pure soccer players.”

Although much of the knowledge useful to the younger players is about the intensity of the other varsity teams or importance of certain skills, a lot of what they remember from their years on the team is the friendships they’ve made.

“Going into freshman year of highschool I didn’t really know that many people,” said Joe Chornij. “I would say doing soccer freshman year really opened me up to a lot of new friends. I’ve been friends with these guys for four years now.”