Soccer: Huron hopes to build team strengths, chemistry in time for playoffs

Luis Gomez begins his second season as head coach of the Huron soccer team and he likes what he sees out on the pitch despite all the challenges that await down this shortened road of a season.

“We are taking it one day at a time,” says Gomez. “We are looking to play our best soccer at the right time. The players understand that the culture and playing style we are looking build will not be perfected in a matter of weeks.”

The River Rats hope to be where they want to be by the time Districts come around and they have the talent and work ethic to take them there.

“We have a lot of young leaders who have emerged early in the season,” Gomez says. “We have empowered our student-athletes to help us set the standard of play and character.”

There is plenty of work to do, especially early in the season.

“We will need to monitor fatigue and injuries as we get into a shorten season full of three games per week,” Gomez says.

Top returning players for the River Rats include Neeko Cho (M/12), Djimo Kouyate (D/M/F/11), Elliot Goebel (GK/12), Mundar Chen (D/M/11), Kantaro Inoki (M/11), Alex Sasatani (D/M/11), Mohammed Hammoud (D/11) and Riley Maciejewski (F/11).

Top incoming players include sophomore midfielder Tim Baker, sophomore forward Rafay Chowdhury and freshman defender Will Cook-Diamond.

Huron opened the season on Tuesday against Ypsilanti.