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By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
August 27, 2008
For the Horizon Christian Hawks, the path back to the playoffs
is charted on a fairly simple course: Win the games they are
should win and everything should fall into place.
The Hawks narrowly slipped into the district playoffs last
season, tying with Open Door in the final game of the season and
earning the final playoff spot through a several-layer
tie-breaker system.
“We need to win the games we are supposed to win,” senior
captain Philip Stenberg said. “If we can do that we should do
well.”
Hawks coach Mark Lago has much of the playoff roster returning,
along with a few new additions.
This will be Lago’s ninth season as head coach of the Hawks — it
will also be his last. In addition to coaching the Hawks, Lago
also coaches a Dynamos U-14 girls team that his daughter plays
on. He wants to step aside as a coach at the end of the season
so he will have time to watch her games when she becomes a
freshman next year.
Lago is still preparing for this season just as he has the eight
before it. He spent much of the first week of practice running
the Hawks into game shape, and then spent the morning half of
the two-a-day practices running and doing game conditioning
before doing drills in the evening.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I think they are going to do well and
surprise a few teams.”
The Hawks’ road back to the playoffs is made a little easier by
the fact that the OSAA special districts for 1A/2A soccer teams
rotate which district gets the most playoff spots. This year
that goes to District III, in which the Hawks play, which will
receive four spots.
The defense will feature the most new faces for the Hawks this
season. Defensive captain Zack Schreiner graduated last year and
Hayden Herring moved away, leaving Jake Johnson as the only
member with significant experience.
The Hawks will also have a new goalkeeper, Ramon Martinez, a
junior transfer, which will allow Lago to move Adam Ohlson out
of the goal box and onto the field.
The changes in those key positions had Lago a little worried
coming into the start of practice.
“I’ve always been one to make the defense and goalkeeping strong
as a foundation and go from there,” he said.
But he added that with the way things have been going he is not
too worried anymore.
“I didn’t know what to expect; but after the first week they
look good,” he said.
The team will be a co-ed squad this year after there were not
enough girls to form a separate girls team, so seniors Liz
Taylor and Christina Brown and junior Sonja Winkle will be
battling out with the boys for playing time, and Lago expects
them to see plenty of action.
“I think they are all going to see some significant time,” he
said.
Ultimately, Lago hopes to give his players the same type of
experience he recalls from his high school days as a parting
gift to them.
“I don’t remember a lot of the games that I played in high
school,” he said. “But I do remember the friends and the fun I
had.”
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