Welcome to the start of a new school year.
I know, the first day of school doesn’t start until later this month, and practice for the fall sports doesn’t begin until Monday. But with so many fall sports to cover, and the football previews stretching two weeks (Aug. 20, small schools; Aug. 27, large – call your Leader ad rep for a spot!) it’s vital to start with the first August issue.
We’re kicking off preview season with boys soccer. There are plenty of interesting storylines to follow among the county teams – De Soto, Festus, Fox, Hillsboro, Northwest, Seckman, St. Pius X and Windsor. The Warriors, Lions and Jaguars all compete in pools within the Suburban Conference. The Dragons, Tigers, Hawks and Owls reside in the Jefferson County Activities Association. And the Lancers are all by their lonesome as an independent. When I broke the story that a group of superintendents from the county convened mostly their proxies to throw St. Pius out of the I-55 Conference and JCAA, I thought by now St. Pius would have latched on to another league. But their coaches seem content to use the extra games to travel out of state to play top teams. I’ve said before I think it’s ridiculous that the Lancers are shunned but Perryville High and St. Vincent are welcomed.
That decision really doesn’t make sense since the Lancers and St. Vincent are both private schools. Why bounce one and keep the other? Especially when you’ve increased travel budgets to drive the extra distance. And when it comes to boys soccer, none of the county teams in the JCAA have been able to touch Perryville since St. Pius left after the 2023-2024 school year. Granted, the Pirates make the conference look good because their success transcends league games. They finished third in the state in Class 2 last year. They boasted the JCAA MVP (Treyton Barnett) and Coach of the Year (Jerry Fulton).
“Obviously, they’ve always got a target on their back,” said Hillsboro boys soccer head coach Chris Schacht. “They have a feeder program, and I think it’s their best sport. Maybe having the home and away schedule will help?”
One of our teams beating Perryville would be akin to beating a team from the Metro Catholic Conference; it’d be a big deal, believe me. Now that the JCAA has doubled its schedule to a home and away game for each conference rivalry, we’ll get more chances to pull off an upset. Every streak has to end.
Schacht returns as Hillsboro’s head coach. Schacht has coached the Hawks for almost a quarter of a century. He isn’t the first, nor will he be the last coach to retire and succumb to the itch to return. Schacht needs a banger like Nick Marchetti was to emerge as a leader and goal scorer.
The Hillsboro girls soccer team will have a new coach for the season next spring. Long-time assistant Victoria Jackson was hired by R-3 recently. Schacht’s daughter, Abby, one of Hillsboro’s former top soccer players, is going to assist Jackson. I think both Hawk programs are in great hands for the future.
In the Festus boys soccer preview, you’ll read about how Aaron Portell is the new head coach. I’ve been following Portell since his successful days as a coach at St. Pius X. Any basketball or soccer team he coaches wins. He guided the Tiger girls basketball team to the state quarterfinals in March and on Memorial Day had the girls soccer team in a district final.
Turning the Festus boys soccer team into a winner will be his biggest challenge. That’s not a derogatory statement against any of the previous coaches or players. As I mention in the school’s soccer preview, the cross country and football teams are major attractions for athletes because of the success they enjoy every year. And that isn’t changing this fall. I look for the football team to make a deep run, perhaps back to the Show-Me Bowl. And the boys cross country team under the direction of Wes Armbruster has something to prove to start its emergence from Bryant Wright’s considerable shadow.
Like Schacht and Hillsboro, when I think of Northwest soccer, I think of Dave Willis. This will be his 19th season as head coach, and he’s won 257 games with the Lions. Every year I send questionnaires to coaches to fill out and return to help me write the previews. And every year Willis provides me with enough details to write two stories. To me that shows how much he cares about the NW soccer program. This county has many coaches who’ve spent basically their whole careers with one program at one school. Jeff Montgomery (baseball) at Festus, and his brother, Wayne (softball) at Windsor are prime examples of this. Willis falls into that category.
Willis finished his questionnaire by writing, “And as always, a huge goal for us is to develop quality citizens that will become independent, self-motivated members of society, who are excellent fathers and husbands someday.”
That pretty much encapsulates what it means to be a coach at this level. Thinking beyond what an athlete can do for a team to win. Making better citizens sounds like something we all should be doing these days.
In the Aug. 13 issue of the Leader, we’ll dive into softball previews. See you then.