Aaron King: Northern Guilford needs to have belief in one another for success Subject:* A friend wanted you to see this item from High School OT: https://wr.al/1Jjgf Northern Guilford head boys soccer coach Aaron King met virtually with HighSchoolOT Triad reporter Zack Adams to discuss the abbreviated 2021 season. The Nighthawks were 20-4-1 overall and 14-0 in Mid-State Athletic 2A/3A split Conference play in 2019. Northern opens the season by traveling to McMichael on Jan. 25. Show Transcript Welcome back to high school. T. I'm Zach Adams, and I'm joined this morning by a northern Guilford Head Boys. Soccer coach Aaron King. Thank you for joining me this morning, coach. The problem. My first question in the club in 19 Pandemic has impacted many parts of North Carolina in different ways and to different extents. Just how, as northern Guilford handled the protocols in place for soccer through workouts, tryouts and practices thus far. Well, we're lucky, tohave our athletic director, Brian Thomas. He's been really clear and consistent with what's expected from the peace. I've struggled with the most, not just wearing a T shirt and shorts, finding I've called. It made fun of myself from my coaching uniform, about three or four different layers of clothing. Um, and and I've dealt with that fine. My players have dealt with it fine. I make them bring a sweatshirt, at least to practice s. That's different. Um, I'm not really sure about the club season. I have a couple of guys practicing here and there. I think there's a pause between, uh, club season and our season. I'm pretty sure there is, Um, it's all a little different It's probably the most different for me because I'm not used to being outside in the winter time on the soccer field, Um, but my players to play club soccer, most of them have played. They would be playing right now anyway, um, so that's it. I mean, we understand all the all the different protocols we understand everything is gonna be a little bit different, but we're willing thio, except all the challenges and just play. After last fall on the Night Hawks were 24 1 overall and a perfect 14 and oh, and mid state to a three split conference play. I know it was a while ago, but I just take me through the 2019 season from your perspective as a head coach. E. I love last season. My season last year with my seniors. These were the, uh, players that I first started coaching with when I started coaching in Northern. They were freshmen and I was a JV coach. We all came in here together, so last year was a really special season to spend with those nine seniors. Um, didn't really end the way we wanted it to end. Obviously we had a tough loss to East Chapel Hill. But we I think, as I talked to some of the alumni a little bit more, we had a fun season. And we, uh, don't look back with too many regrets. Obviously wanted to win a little bit more. Um, but then it was weird. We I was thinking about that this morning. Our season finished in November. Um, and then by March, we were out of school, and it it was really weird to go from seeing my players every day, even in the off season, um, to not seeing them until graduation, many of them. So that was a weird a weird moment. Definitely. I miss those guys. I've I've seen a couple of them since they've been back. I've talked to some of the alumni from last year. Um, everyone is trying to get through this like we all are. So the pandemic is causing limited nonconference games across the state, but especially for northern having a conference only schedule. A few notable contest from 2019 were against Hoggard Northwest, Guilford, Southwest, Gilford and Williams for the Nighthawks. Just e, in your opinion, as head coach, how disappointing is it not to have those, um, out of league games this season where the tune up is, of course, limited, right? I don't know if this points a word. I think we are. We're approaching right now. Is at least we get to play. Um, you know, I was thinking in the summertime like, maybe we wouldn't even be able to play this year. So I'm hopeful that we can be on the field and play together. Um, the philosophy I've had since I've been coaches will pretty much play anyone anywhere. So, um, some of that decision making what's taking on the hands this year? But we just have to go and play and do our best. Um, definitely wish we could play some of our friends here in the Triad and in Greensboro. But fortunately, some of my kids played in a summer side league a dry in park this fall. So we had some pretty heated games with with those, um, going against Northwest and southwest on page. Um, so I think that's just I think everybody sort of accepted for us that that's just how it is. And it helps our conference out because some of our conference teams. It's easier for them to schedule us, um, or everybody within the conference. So I mean, that's That's the fake we were given, Uh, but we're just ready to play. I have 18 kids, plus my JV team, who is just They probably want to go play right now if they could, so we'll play anybody on. We'll give it our best and go from there. Yes, so speaking of Conference play, the mid state to a three A league has eight teams Northern Western elements and Eastern elements where the top three schools a year ago with limited playoff first at stake just how the Nighthawks be approaching each of the 14 games on the schedule. That's something I thought a lot about. How do I keep all my players engaged? How do we keep the level of play up? I mean, this week we are playing a lot in practice, taking on each other a lot, hopefully to rise up our level of play. Um, and then once the season starts, I mean, it's easy to look at our conference sometimes and think that we might have games that will be as competitive but we treat every game very seriously in Northern because we get everybody's best effort eso throughout the season. This year we play. We're gonna hopefully play our games Monday and Wednesday, weather permitting. Um, Thursday we're going to scrimmage again. Well, scrimmage JV, um, just work out any kinks. I mean, that's, you know, two or three games a week I think is going to keep us pretty engaged and ready to go. And actually the best we can dio I mean, I I over prepared pretty much for every game for every proponent for us. So it's e mean I don't think our preparations going to change. It would be nice to play a couple more games, uh, before we start our conference play because, as you said, the playoff format is pretty cutthroat this year. Uh, but at the same time, I mean, we're just gonna play like we always do and come out and give our best. And I always say this. We just see what happens next when we put our best foot forward and and keep moving forward. So there were a nine seniors on our northern roster season ago. As you look to I'm a couple minutes back. I believe three of the top four goal scores did graduate in another 2020 class. Just how concerned are you if it all with losing that I'm attacking production with the moose season starting in a week? Yeah. I mean, that's the, uh if I had my coach notes here for practice today, you would see that we have a lot of shooting drills. I'm pretty much filling all of our empty time and practice with some shooting to make sure that we are, um, feeling confident going into our games next week. Spent quite a bit of time. I think we're gonna be really strong defensively. We've got a group of juniors and seniors, really along our back four and up through the middle. So we just need to connect our midfield and find our forward and find our outside midfielders to, uh, keep the ball moving. So we're gonna work a lot this week. Um, last week was we had three days to try outs and two tough practices, and I saw some heavy legs on the weather was cold. Eso we arrested some this weekend and this this week. We're gonna hit it pretty hard Way don't really have a chance, uh, to work out any kinks starting next week. So we just have to get this part fixed. Uh, I won't find some goals. We always find some goals. So, um, we can score. And the strong defensively, I'll be pretty happy. So I'm another one of those graduates was goalkeeper Tyler Yates. Hey, had 316 saves, 69 goals against and 33 shut outs plus logged on 5608 minutes in his varsity career. I just described what type of player Tyler was over the past number of seasons and just who is gonna be replacing him in between the post in 2021? Right? Tyler again. He's one of he's been one of the only goalkeepers I've had during my time as a coach in Northern. Hey came in. He was my JV goalie in 2000 16, um, and he grew amazing both in size and just confidence. I speak about this a lot. Something happened to Tyler between his junior and senior seasons, uh, where he just had crazy confidence. He's a very quiet goalkeeper, goes about his business, But something happened where he just found some amazing confidence last year. I think he allowed 15 goals in 25 games, which is I mean, that's crazy. Uh, so and he ended up accepting a scholarship to to play at a Brit University. So I'm really proud of Tyler. I'm always proud of all my soccer players. Um, really proud of Tyler, too. Hit the challenge of academics head on and to play it a Brit. They had a interesting fall season where they just scrimmaged each other a lot on the goals and the goal. This year, I have senior Kyle separate. He's been with us all four years, has played some in varsity, has has really worked hard in the last years. Well, he has a great teammate, Tyler. I mean, I don't know if anybody expected to have the season the Tyler had last year, but Kyle's a great teammate. He sacrificed a lot last year to play the limited number of minutes that he did, but he all always had Tyler ready in practicing games. So I'm excited to see all his four years of work pay off for us. The northern um and to see his leadership because this is his time to shine a swell. We also have Patrick Goldberg, who will, uh, he's a junior will spend some time in goal for us as well. So hopefully they've been taking notes the last couple of years watching Tyler play, Um, and they bring a great attitude every day. They come and work really hard. That's all I ask. We don't have to be perfect. You just common, are willing to put in the work. You listen to me and my speeches. Sometimes that's the only thing I ever asked for us. Well, on Ben, we we play. So I have some other players that you're expecting to be key contributors for the Nighthawks within the starting 11, or maybe even off the bench. All right, so I think this year we have eight seniors. So another big crop of seniors, seven of them have played for me. Probably. This is their fourth year. I have one new senior this year. Um, is joining the team with us. So, uh, we're counting on a lot of leadership from all seven of those seniors. I'm looking, especially JT Buckley. Hey, Plays in the midfield. For us, this will be his fourth year as a starter on varsity. He's really showed up and lad as much as he could his position. He's really I really have enjoyed seeing his leadership and his personality really blossom. And his four years here s so we'll be in the middle of the field also in the middle of the field. We have weighed Wallace, who will be playing more of a holding midfielder and then in the back are defensive line. We have Alex Pratt and keeping right will be, um, and the, uh, fullback defensive positions here. We also have a couple other seniors. Camera Blaylock, Ryan housing. Zadi Um, I hope I'm not forgetting anybody else here. Um, who again? I expect all of my seniors to show up and lead. Um, we have one of our teams favorite players, got a little entered snowboarding, and so his name's been Shuttleworth. We're really gonna miss him in the field. On the sideline. Azi starts to recover from his injury. Um, he's gonna be in my ear all the time trying to tell me how to be a better coach. Um, so again, I expect everybody in this program. Thio, especially the older guys, to be leaders. Um, even if you can't play, I've been asked been asking them quite a bit to provide encouragement to all of us and to make sure that he is achieving his goals even with a broken leg from snowboarding. So again, I put a lot of trust to my seniors to show up and lead and lead from day one. And they've been really great doing that so far this year. So I does Northern Guilford have a team motto or our particular theme for the upcoming season? Um, I, uh, modest. Um, but this year I'm trying something different. I'm All of our players are when we're not playing soccer were wearing these little bracelets here, didn't really have a message on them. But I felt like we needed something that we could feel technically, uh, to remind us that we're part of the soccer program. And if we are, I'm encouraging my guys to get up in the morning before school starts, which isn't really that early to get up in the morning before school starts and to run or to stretch or to work on something to make them a better teammate so that when we are together, we can, um, get better as a team. And I think these are also a good reminder. Um, Thio, look at when we when our friends are asking us to go hang out with them when we talk about having a small bubble because we want to get through this season without missing any games or, more importantly, without anybody getting sick. So everybody has the bracelet. I'm even wearing mine. It reminds me to be I've told my team it reminds that need to be present when we're practice and when we're together, I wanna be president. Give them all my energy. But also, I spend a lot of time away from the field like every other coach in this area. Spend a lot of time preparing for our practice is preparing for our games and just me feeling this on my arm reminds me like we're all in this together. Um, So again, no message. It was a quick purchase, uh, to and I think it's been accepted Well, because we all just sort of I want to remember that we're part of a team and this is This goes from JV on up. Everybody has one. I've told them that we're all in this together, and, um, anybody could be contributing for us at any time. So I want everybody to wake up, um, refreshed in the morning and see their bracelet and get ready to get to work. So I through social media, I've seen that Northern Gilford has New Jersey's and has played a unique fun games like soccer, tennis and soccer. Golf. My favorite late practice drill quote unquote. What? Soccer? Tennis whenever I played this sport. But anyways, I just have the student athletes reacted to those new kits and just some of the activities that aren't conditioning. Well, they've only seen the new uniforms and pictures were passing them out today. Um, and again, Ah, uniforms aren't everything. But if we were proud to represent northern and these uniforms look great s Oh, I can't wait for them to wear them and, you know, on the front it says Northern on the back. It says Nighthawks. There's no doubt who we are. That makes me really proud. I always told the my players that we want to represent Northern on and off the field, home and away games, practice and everything. So that's a good reminder. I can't. We're gonna be excited today. Maybe I should like that. Take a video of them getting their uniforms today. That would be interesting. Yeah, like, uh, this conditioning. I we totally understood the purpose of the conditioning and the skill development. Um, and I had players who want to come out and just be on the field, so that's great. So we had to find some new things and different things to do during this time. So we had a pretty intense soccer tournament soccer tennis tournament. One time we had a round robin and then elimination brackets, and we have prizes for the winners. That was always fun. I think the next week there is a picture on Twitter that I posted of us playing soccer, golf. You couldn't couldn't actually see that we were playing soccer golf because it was so far away. But we had nine holes that we set up on the field, and that went over really well. I mean, and it was really awesome to see, uh, my freshman being paired with seniors. Uh, and also that they took it seriously and they were very competitive, and it was great to see them just trying to the best of soccer golf. So I have found out as a coach. Sometimes my ideas, um, don't always go over well, So I was happy that I'm always happy when I introduce something new like our soccer golf, and we have prizes for the winner there to on by prizes. I said we had candy, which I was always happy to send them home with. Candy. Um, we had a little bit of we had a lot of competition surprises at the end. It was great Onda again. It showed me that my players were willing to just eso up, follow all the protocols, have fun, and then we go home, which is really again, what we try to encourage here in Northern The last question coaches. They fill in the blank after Northern Guilford to be successful, and it's abbreviated 2021. Campaign blank has to happen. Well, uh, I think belief has to happen. We have to believe in our in our team. We have to be a good teammates. We have to believe that, uh, if we take chances going forward or defensively that, um, we have teammates that can help us. So I think we just need to believe that all the hard work we're putting in this week especially, is going thio help us in February and March.