The Wildcat boy’s soccer team finished the 2024 season at 13-12, losing in regionals.
After the loss, Head coach Valentine Walker and his underclassmen immediately began their quest to improve for the 2025 season.
One thing they knew they could build on was experience.
The team was young in the past, but they are now fitting into bigger roles and showing readiness across the team.
When addressing the 13-12 record from last year, Coach Walker noted that the team was young, starting a lot of freshmen and sophomores.
That experience has propelled the 2025 Wildcats to sit at 17-4-2 and heading into the sectional championship against a tough Washington Panthers team this Saturday, November 1.
“These guys got the experience when they’re younger, took our licks getting the experience out of the way-,” Walker added.
Walker and his assistant coaches have been working to expose the potential of this young boys’ soccer team since they arrived. He praises the team’s success, highlighting their coachability, strong leadership, and improved physical conditioning through new training methods, like GPS tracking [referenced in “A focus on team chemistry helps Wildcat boys soccer maintain a top-10 ranking”).
However, the Wildcats do not only focus on their physical performance, they’ve shifted to focus more on their mindset, too.
Coach Walker noted that they have “very level headed guys” and “good leadership on the team.”
He directs the team’s mindset to be “always one game at a time.”
This mindset is consistent across the whole team, and has been something that has grounded the team all season.
“I think, in the beginning of the season, we saw we were ranked high nationally, and then we came to our senses and saw that those rankings don’t mean much, they’re just numbers. So I think we put all that behind us and now we’re on to bigger and better things,” Junior defender, Charlie Hanks said.
Walker also mentioned several key players across different positions when discussing the team’s strength and balance.
A notable name from Walker is junior John Jasker, or as Coach Walker likes to call him John “The Jet” Jasker.
Jasker broke the single season scoring record with 33 goals thus far.
Although he has had a monster-season, he praises his team for this achievement.
“It was a really, really cool moment to be able to break that record, and I just want to contribute to all my teammates to really help me get there.” They were the ones that really earned that for me, and I was just the one who claimed it,” Jasker expressed.
The Wildcats will kickoff at 11am at Washington High School on Saturday, November 1.
For more local soccer news, the 18-3-1 Normal Ironmen takes on 13-10-1 Collinsville tomorrow, as well.
