Soccer club looks forward to season

This archived article was written by: Sterling Mumford

College of Eastern Utah has been in school for just over a month now and everyone is getting into the groove of things. Fall is around the corner,which means sweatshirts and coats will be used to fight off the cooler weather, but for CEU’s soccer club, the sport is just about to heat up.
The soccer club recently had its first games of the season this past weekend. The team has been practicing for five weeks now, with tryouts the last week of August. The club started with just a bunch of students getting together and playing on the football field, which has been converted into a soccer field.
Coach Ron Dadgari, a resident of Price for the past 14 years, was inspired last spring to help out with CEU’s soccer club. He works at Peczuh Printing but loves to play soccer and to coach it as well. So in his spare time he has helped coach the CEU squad. CEU was too late last spring to compete in any tournaments but is excited to be playing in games this fall. Dadgari is excited for the season and looks to constantly improve the team in every aspect of the game.
The games this past weekend were a wake-up call for the team. “We just had never played together in a live game before so it will take us awhile before we can run on all cylinders,” said Captain Ivan Carroll.
The team headed down last Friday to Dixie State College to play. “We lost 5-0. We just didn’t play aggressive enough and our chemistry wasn’t that great,” says Coach Dadgari,”but I think we will be able to beat them when the come play us at CEU. We just didn’t execute on our opportunities early in the game and that cost us.”
The second game, which was played at Southern Utah University, was not any better. The team lost 8-1, but even worse then losing, several players were injured during the game. Toshi Shinozaki tore some ligaments in his knee and will not be ready to play again for at least two weeks. Dadgari calls Shinozaki the “goal maker”, so losing him will affect the team a lot. There are many excuses the team could have used and it’s easy to complain and make excuses when loosing. Dadgari said that the fields at both schools were less then desirable. “Long grass and crab grass are not fun to play on,” says Dadgari.
There were some positives that came out of the games this weekend. “The positive thing is that it gave us experience that we desperately needed. The kids now know what it’s all about,” says Dadgari. “Playing without Ivan and Dan this past weekend didn’t help at all. With them back this weekend there will not be as many holes in our team. It hurt us because I couldn’t substitute anyone out when we were getting hurt. Having them back will help the team immensely,” Dadgari says.
Even with the team starting the season on a low note, they are keeping their heads high and looking forward to this weekend where they play Snow College on Friday. The team is looking for their first victory and is looking for support from the students and faculty of CEU.