Trading their vacation time for push-ups and sore muscles, the boys soccer D team trained at 3:30 p.m. every day over summer break to improve their soccer skills with the rest of the soccer teams. The D team is made up of players whom are considered to have the least amount of experience. Sean Devlin, a freshman D team member, enjoyed the summer work out and improved his skills.

“Getting to train before tryouts is important, it really was a great experience,” Delvin said. “I improved a lot, I was really slow [in the beginning] and when I got to conditioning I was a lot stronger and faster.”

Kelly Barah, the head coach for the boys and girls soccer team, explains how he changes the D team every season.

“It just depends on how many people try out each year,” Barah said. “If we have up to 90 people show up, then we’ll have to make hard cuts, but we have so many technical players [this year] that it was hard to make those cuts.”

Practicing with each other for the past three months and building a sense of teamwork, Devlin explains how his teammates feel discouraged when a team member quits after they have spent so much time together.

“There is some tension when someone says they’re going to quit the team because it was too boring,” Delvin said. “A couple people from the pool team have quit.”

Maksim Smith, a freshman who was a member of the D team during conditioning, decided to quit due to lack of difficulty during training.

“I thought I had better options elsewhere, like club soccer in the spring, which is … at a higher level,” Smith said.

Coach Barah understands why players quit the D team.

“It’s always heartbreaking, but people have to make decisions and I have to understand that as well,”

Coach Barah is passionate about the improvement of his players, which is why he spends time coaching each team to develop their skills.

“Every single player gets the full range of training,” Barah said. “You can always see change — if not physically, you can always see the camaraderie. It’s a great thing.”