Greenwood Christian senior Carmine Mina, right, battles Noah Pope of Whiteland during a match this season.
Daily Journal file photo
Greenwood Christian’s transition game appears to be working just fine.
Last year’s Class A state runner-up lost numerous seasoned players to graduation and is breaking in a new coach, but hasn’t so much as missed a beat with an 11-4 record and No. 6 ranking heading into sectional play this week.
Rather than agonize over losing seven seniors who accounted for 45% of the team’s goals, first-year coach Steve Campbell assessed the talent around him and made changes accordingly.
“It was my goal to play a different style,” Campbell said. “I’m going off of the weakness and strengths, and coaching from there. We are utilizing the speed and quickness of our players to score more goals.
“We not only have more goals, we have more goal scorers.”
In 2022, the Cougars (11-8-1) averaged 2.9 goals per match, losing to Park Tudor in the state championship match, 9-0. Through its first 15 competitions this time around, GCA fashions a norm of 3.1 goals.
Then, the borderline unthinkable — on Sept. 7, Campbell’s team exacted revenge on Park Tudor with a 1-0 victory. Sophomore Bo Campbell delivered the difference with his second-half goal.
Twelve different Cougars have scored at least one goal last fall. This year’s squad has already duplicated the dozen goal scorers; nine Greenwood Christian players have two or more.
“I had to get them to believe in themselves,” Campbell said. “Over half of our current starters did not see much playing time last year. But they caught on quickly, and got from point A to point B quicker than I expected.”
That includes seniors Drew Adams and Carmine Mina, the latter of whom wasn’t even part of Greenwood Christian’s state finals roster last season.
Both players were competing in the sport for the first time.
“On our team last year, we had like 18 players who went to state, but I wasn’t one of them. I played JV,” Mina said. “Our coach is amazing. He came in knowing some of us were not advanced in ball skills.
“Also, he has built a lot of trust on our team, and we enjoy going to practice.”
Adams, a midfielder, saw the pitch in 20 matches last season but had no goals or assists. Much more is expected of him this time around, as evidenced by his two-goal performance in a 5-0 win over Bloomfield last month.
“We’ve had to have some people step up because we lost a lot of players. But our coached helped us a ton over the summer,” Adams said. “It’s been incredible, having success with a new team.”
Sophomore center midfielder Bo Campbell has been the Cougars’ top scorer the past two seasons with 25 goals as a freshman and 17 so far this season. He, along with goalkeeper Colton Flint and Caleb Schmidt (both seniors) and soph Luke McNichols, were the primary holdovers from the 2022 team.
Also elevating their games have been sophomores Andrew Ramlain (4 goals, 5 assists) and Aiden Patino (3 goals), junior Caden Camden (6 goals, 7 assists), freshman Caleb Amador (3 goals, 5 assists) and senior Elijah Herndon.
Trey Dobson, the quarterback of the school’s football team, brings, in Campbell’s words, a new level of athleticism to proceedings when entering a match.
Flint, the last line of the GCA defense, has made 61 saves.
Whether the Cougars can manufacture another memorable postseason run remains to be seen. Just know the one made a year ago has made the current GCA squad aware of the possibilities.
“I think the team trusts each other,” Adams said. “Making it to state last year showed us what we’re capable of.”
