Hampton boys soccer season filled with ups and downs

The season came to an end for the Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs boys soccer team following a 4-0 loss to Webster City in the Class 2A Substate 2 tournament on May 20. The boys team ends the season with a record of 8-8. Webster City led 2-0 at halftime and scored two more goals in the second half. Looking back at the season as a whole, Bulldogs head coach Danielle Arana said that the season went ok.

“I think we had a lot of talent that we tried to blend together ,” Arana said. “I wish we would have had a little bit more of a successful season just for the success of the boys and I think they worked hard and they were talented. It was just trying to combine it all together and it just didn’t work in some games as well as it did in others. I think the boys figured out their strengths and figured out how to work together. Unfortunately it just wasn’t enough to keep going.”

The season had plenty of ups and downs for the Bulldogs as they alternated between wins and losses for most of the year. Arana said that next year will be very different for the Bulldogs as they had a large number of seniors starting and that the players who will be back next year can learn from this experience  as they also had younger players on the field as well.

“Next year we will have a lot of sophomores helping those seniors and I think it is going to be totally different,” Arana said. “Because with having a lot of seniors now they have been playing together except for some new players and they had an entire style of playing and stuff like that. And these freshmen who will be sophomores next will be a little bit different of a game and so hopefully we can work a lot to get that chemistry in the offseason and bring a whole different strength to our game this year.”

During the season, Arana said that one of the two main positives for the Bulldogs this year was their ability to adapt and change during games.

“When we saw something wasn’t working we were able to kind of fix it quickly and grow from it,” Arana said. “Sometimes it was a short growth and sometimes we kept it for the rest of the season and I think that sometimes it was the reason we had that back and forth with wins and losses.”

The other main positive was how the team responded to the fact that early in the year the team had three red cards.

“If you got a fourth you would not be in the postseason and even though we felt like there were some unfortunate events that caused those red cards, we had to be really strategic in how we played,” Arana said. “We had to play very smart compared to being too aggressive. We had adjusted to how refs were calling the games to make sure that we could continue on with the season and I applaud all of my boys to the way they adjusted to that. They understood what needed to happen and they went with it and I am proud of them and how they handled that situation.”

Something that stood out to Arana this year was how the team was able to come together and take care of what they needed to take care of.

“We didn’t know exactly what we were getting heading into our game with South Tama and we came out pressuring right away and did what we needed to do very efficiently,” Arana said. “I know that we had losses and our record wasn’t where we wanted it to be but just the fact that we lost to teams that are ranked and until Monday most of our games were by one, two, or three points. We did not have these games where we were losing 7-0 or 6-0 so I think that just shows our strength. We just couldn’t stay consistent and I think that is something I think the boys should be proud of.”

For next year, Arana said she thinks chemistry will be the key for the Bulldogs to take the next step.

“I think that was something we had last year that we did not have this year as much and I think that is the only difference in the success we had last year compared to this year,” Arana said. “So really just spending a lot of time together in the offseason to build that chemistry to get to know how each other play to be able play off each other with out having to think it through for so long.”