It is safe to say Poly Prep’s Varsity Boys’ Soccer team has not had the start they would have liked: tight, low-scoring losses have characterized the first half of the season. However, with the team having recorded three wins, six losses and one draw in the Ivy Prep League, they will look to their ability to be “constantly growing” and “building upon themselves, like a bonsai tree, in order to improve from their early losses,” said Tanner Gola ’28. Gola, a starting center back on the team, said that this analogy is something that Coach Matthew Pavlich emphasized heavily in preseason. Despite not coming out as strong as they had hoped, the team believes their ability to build on the experience they have gained from their early losses will allow them to continue to improve as the season goes on. This continual growth was evident this past Monday in a decisive win over Collegiate that Gola described as an “offensive boom.” This win helped push the team’s record to nearly .500 at three wins, four losses, and one draw. Not only was it evidence of the offensive firepower that they had been searching for all year, but it was something of “a revenge game after they beat us earlier in the season”, said Gola. The win was headlined by two goals by captain Bayo Maathey ’26, whose leadership, along with fellow senior captain Magnus Nesdale ’26, is one of the keys that Gola addressed as a necessity for the team to enjoy greater success in the second half of the season. 

The other key he identified was “not putting our opponents on a pedestal” and always “believing in ourselves that we can win.” Although they have suffered losses to various Ivy League teams in this first slate of games, they must approach each game with the belief that they will be the ones on the right side of the scoreboard when the horn blows. This belief is rooted in the preseason preparation that Gola believes has prepared them to “maintain and preserve strength deep into the season and all the way into the postseason.” The team will undoubtedly have to start delivering  the success they know they can achieve to give themselves a shot at a deep run in the playoffs. Nevertheless, they will benefit from the knowledge that the commitment they demonstrated towards their mental and physical training during the preseason ensures they will be attacking the second half fully prepared. As the adage goes, it’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish, and the team trusts that they will be able to outlast their Ivy League counterparts to finish the year in the best possible position for playoffs.

While the team anticipates a win this year, the contributions of the underclassmen already on varsity have generated much excitement for the program’s future. Athletes such as Dylan Willis ’28, Sean Reddy ’28, and Leo Cohen ’29, have already shown their ability to adjust to the playstyle and pace at the varsity level.. Even for those underclassmen who are seeing little to no playing time, “it’s a very good experience to just get exposure to the level of play”,  as simply being within the program and around high-level soccer will help those younger players looking to be key cogs in future teams. The player development formula is clearly working, as several players are beginning to establish their presence on the collegiate level. Lachlan Rudd ’25 is currently playing at Bard College, and last year’s captain Carlo Carson ’25 is a starting freshman at the D3 level for Emerson College. Gola also described how the “Poly Prep soccer future has shown very bright things.” While the team will continue to lean on their veteran leadership to steer the ship year after year, they will also be buoyed by the knowledge that they have continuous young talent coming through the pipeline. Not only will the team be actively competing for an Ivy League title this year, but they will also be consistently producing potential championship teams and college-level talent deep into the future.