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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Oakland County Training Camp Tour (Soccer Edition) - Taking Flight Towards a Repeat


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.



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