The Darlington Soccer Academy is in the middle of a very competitive season, characterized by long mornings, rigorous training sessions and a determined chase for success across all the age teams. With the U17 and U19 teams currently undefeated, and the U16 team having a record of 5-5-1, the Academy teams continue to balance hard-fought wins with hard-learned lessons. For a lot of players, this season has been both rewarding and tiring. U17 player Logan Bethel shed some light on the demanding way of competing at the Academy level while maintaining academic expectations.
“The Academy has a very busy schedule,” Bethel said. “We have morning trainings, so it’s hard to balance that with schoolwork sometimes… it can be a heavy workload.”
Still, despite the early alarms and late-night study sessions, Bethel remains confident in his team’s direction. Leadership has played a vital role in the U17 squad success. Bethel pointed to teammates juniors Lance Carroll and Hugo Enander as some of the people he looks up to on the team.
“Lance is always encouraging people and telling people where they need to be,” he said. “Hugo is just very loud… if you throw the ball, he’ll scream.”
Meanwhile, the U19 and U16 teams are battling for consistency. The U17 and U19’s undefeated record reflects a challenging but competitive season so far, while the U16s’ stable 5-5-1 scores show promise and potential for the rest of the year. U16 player and sophomore Izak Cooper acknowledged that setbacks have been part of the journey.
“The most challenging moments so far were when we lost,” Cooper said. “The more we play over the season, the better we’ll get.”
The U19 team’s persistence was also shown in the words of Omar Chemaly. Chemaly talked about how the U19s are currently undefeated in their season. With some of the games benign against different colleges, Chemaly explained that facing older, faster opponents has pushed the team to elevate their game.
“It prepares us for the future,” he said. “We’ve got to stay level-headed… go into every game with the same attitude and try to win.”