With some unfortunate weather towards the end of last week,
I thought I’d change my Oakland County training camp tour up a little bit for
today with some soccer.
For the first time in school history, the Auburn Hills
Avondale boys soccer team enters a season where, as the defending Division 2 state
champions, the Yellow Jackets will be chasing down a chance to repeat in 2012.
With two narrow, 2-1 wins in the state semifinals and
finals, Avondale picked up their first ever soccer championship and will now
have a big target on their back on a game-in, game out basis this fall.
While the Yellow Jackets did lose plenty of contributors
from last season’s squad, including Michigan-bound Nate Chapman as well as
Danny Swanson and Joe Davidson, the cupboard is far from bare this season for
Avondale who returns 10 players from last year’s group.
Led by senior captains Mark Shoemaker and Eric Koberstein, as
well as junior captain Garrett Ritterhaus and senior Skyler Russ, who netted
the game winning goal in the state championship game with less than two minutes
left to play, the Yellow Jackets will without a doubt be in contention for the
Division 2 state championship once again.
Look for Shoemaker, Koverstein and Ritterhaus put together
one of the area’s top midfield’s as all three played key roles in last year’s
state title run.
Holding down the backline for Avondale will be sophomore
center back Stuart Russ who should be one of the state’s top sophomores this
year and one of the best defenders going forward during the next three years.
It won’t be an easy road back to the state finals for
Avondale, but with 10 returners from last year’s edition of the Yellow Jackets,
long time head coach Dave Muczynski’s squad has just as good of a chance as any
to finish off the 2012 season just like they did in 2011.
Twitter.com/JDeuceDullack
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