Jul. 17—FAIRMONT — Fairmont Senior is accustomed to restocking the cupboards. From Ike Swiger to Seth Stilgenbauer to Jonas and Isaac Branch, the Polar Bears’ soccer program has been tasked with filling big shoes annually.
Now in preparing for 2021, Fairmont Senior head coach Darrin Paul is looking for his next star.
“I’m looking for some of the young guys to step up,” Paul said. “And I think they’re ready for that challenge. The nice thing that we’re blessed with is we have good talent, we have a talented roster — we have JV kids who are really competing and want to play on varsity.”
Paul’s crew is nearing the end of the first week of their three-week live period, an important time for teams to regain their conditioning and focus for the season ahead. And the Polar Bears are focused on one thing — another state title.
“[Our goal’s to] win a state championship, that’s our main goal every year,” Fairmont Senior Junior Nate Flower said during Friday’s practice.
“I think we’re going to do really good,” fellow Junior Kaelen Armstrong said, standing beside his teammate. “As Nate said, we’re trying to aim for another state championship and I think that’s achievable.”
The Polar Bears are gunning for a three-peat this season, having taken home the gold in 2019 and 2020 after defeating Robert C. Byrd and Charleston Catholic, respectively. Paul would certainly not mind a repeat of last year, where the Polar Bears were led by the eventual 2020-21 Gatorade West Virginia Boys Soccer Player of the Year, Jonas Branch.
“I think we took everybody’s best punch,” Paul said. “We had a couple of small hiccups, but those were on the coaching staff, moving guys around, but I think we fared very well last year.”
Paul is entering his third year as head coach of the Polar Bears, though it will be his 21st on the staff. Joe DeNardi, who is still on as an assistant, was the head coach for the years prior, with the two ostensibly switching places in 2019.
Also on board are Caleb and Justin Anselene, and Matt Branch — the older brother of Isaac and Jonas. Throughout all the roster turnover, one near-constant has been the coaching staff.
“We have a really good staff,” Paul said. “We all know what we’re trying to do and we all feed off each other. We’ve got good chemistry from the coaching staff down to the players.”
Paul’s staff has work to do entering this season, especially on defense, where the Polar Bears graduated four starters along the back line. On the offensive end, Paul described this iteration of the team as “top heavy,” while shining a spotlight on Nate Flower, Kaelen Armstrong, and seniors Ashton Cecil and Bubby Towns.
“We have some good young talent,” Paul said. “It’s just giving them the reps and giving them the time. We’ve always said it’s going to take about 10 games, we feel, to get them game experience and get the chemistry built. But I think defense this year is going to be the biggest thing we have to concentrate on.”
“We preach defense here at Fairmont Senior.”
Paul plans to take his team to Point Pleasant on Saturday for a 7-on-7 tournament, and plans to have another one a week from Saturday at their very own East-West Stadium. Those live games are where the Polar Bears hope to start accruing that crucial experience, and work on different aspects of their games.
“We’re just easing into it,” Flower said. “We’re getting into our rhythm and getting ready for the regular season.”
“[We’re working on] our team skill, in general, try and work on the depth of our squad too, so we can have more guys come off the bench and make an impact.”
The soccer preseason begins in early August, with the regular season kicking off later in the month. The Polar Bears’ are first slated for an away game on Aug. 20 against Nicholas County, though when it comes to the regular season, Paul expressed the importance of perspective.
“We don’t worry too much about records as far as the regular season,” Paul said. “We won the Big Ten last year, we’d like to do that again, we’d like to win the county, we’d like to beat our rival. But honestly the biggest thing for us, we have our focus on one thing and that’s the state title and we just use the 20 games to prepare for that.”
Fairmont Senior has many luxuries — a roster loaded with talent, a coaching staff comfortable with each other — but their biggest advantage might be that they know what it takes to get to the big stage, and how to finish the job when they are there.
“Just keep winning,” Armstrong said. “We did everything well last year, so we’re just going to try and replicate that.”
Reach Nick Henthorn at 304-367-254 or by email at nhenthorn@timeswv.com.