Jim Beck: Western Guilford has its program in a good spot with early 2021 season looming Subject:* A friend wanted you to see this item from High School OT: https://wr.al/1Jm6q Western Guilford head boys soccer coach Jim Beck met with HighSchoolOT Triad reporter Zack Adams via Zoom to talk about the upcoming season. The Hornets did finish 14-7-2 overall and 5-5 in Piedmont Triad 3A Conference competition back in 2019. Show Transcript Welcome back to high school OT. I'm Zach Adams, and I'm joined this morning by a Western Guilford head Boys Soccer coach Jim Beck. Thank you for joining me this morning, Coach. Thank you on the problem. So our first question is the Kobe 19 pandemic has caused wrench to be thrown in everyone's daily lives since March. Just how is Western Guilford gone about the roller coaster of emotions, Plus any protocols that may be in place now, whenever I work out or practice sessions are taking place. Yeah, we're good. Uh, fortunately, uh, it's been it's been up and down year, stressful year. I have a lot of kids came back from last year's team, and they're eager to play. I've got, uh, non seniors, and, you know, they want their senior night. They wanna have a chance to play together. Uh, so they did a lot of workouts on their own, and I kept them together through zoom calls, So it still feel like we had a team and and so we I feel good where we're at based on the fact that has been such a roller coaster. So the n C. H s A. Is allowing a Condensed Boys soccer season to get underway next week. Western Guilford Host page on Monday and the season opener. Just what are some pros or cons in your opinion? Thio. Having ah, high school boys soccer at this time of year that could be relating to the club season. Colder weather, field conditions and otherwise. Well, I'll tell you the cold. I'm you know, I'm not used to it. The kids don't bother them. But I told them I said, Gas, I'm not used to playing like this in this weather. Um, field conditions are field is really it can't take a lot of rain. So we're looking at some options, Uh, maybe play on some other fields with club. The club teams here. Um, but our field is really, really It takes a lot of It's a soccer only field, so it takes. Gets a lot of play on it. So Western Guilford went 14 7 and two overall and five and five, and Piedmont Triad three conference play during his 2019 campaign but was a while ago now. But just take me through last season from your way were really last year, were totally different team this year. We're last last year were really methodical. Um, we dribbled the ball too much way. Didn't really have that in our midfield, although we had Matthew All ST Matthew during who had 27 goals and 18 assists. Uh, we had a good, strong back line, Uh, that comes back David Chiba hero and Lane Decker. And then, of course, our goalkeeper will equipment. But then you add in some other guys and we're are a lot different than we were last year. It's, uh, black black. Look at two different, really. Two different face is one thing. So we did speak a couple times after games in 2019, and you were always proud with your team's effort with underclassmen at various spots on the field, though a 13 seniors graduated from that team. Just how important is it gonna be to have guys with experience suiting up for Western Guilford in a such a different season like we're about to embark on? But we still have some good uh uh, some really good players coming back. Course we got Matthew during. He comes back for his senior season and that that was 27 goals, 18 assists. We've got senior Sadat, Ramesh 10 goals, eight assists and sophomore Sandy Carmona, six goals and five assists. A moved Jameer Cook from the from a holding midfielder up. Thio, the center midfielder, which will really help us out. We scrimmaged last night against Ragsdale and he got a goal, so I know I think we did the right thing defensively. Lane Decker. Unbelievable. D. One kid. Hey, just anchors that back, back back there and then we'll Whitman come back. His goalkeeper could probably be one of the best goalkeepers in the state, but I got a couple of young guys. I got a, um, Matthew Cooper is another senior, that place back in the defense. But I got a young kid, Logan Remy, who is a a tiny sophomore place in the back. Um, he's not afraid of anybody, and last night was a good chance for him to show, you know, Hey, he's he can play at that back in the back spot back there. So when looking atyou roster and I deciding on formation, I do see any strengthen lineup or maybe even a weakness is that I kind of need to be fixed as the non converse late rolls on into PTC play. Well, we still have to kind. I gotta I gotta find that mix on. Make sure that the chemistry is right, because when you have a lot of really hot caliber players, sometimes it's tough to keep keep them in. But they're good kids. Um, our strength is gonna be defensively, E. I mean, we're really gonna be strong from the, uh from holding mid spots back were really good there. Midfield is good. They just haven't played together. Um, Juan Medina is a new addition to our midfield. He'll be playing some attacking mid, um, up top. We will score. We will score a lot of goals. I really feel like score a lot of goals. Uh, we got a lot, lot more speed than we had last year. Will be a much faster team. You know, we do a lot of really one touch stuff, you know, we're a little thin coming off the bench. That might be our weakness if we have something just to fill in some of those gaps and give some guys some timeto rest. So the 14 game a regular season will mostly makeup of Piedmont Triad three. A conference games The PTC was really competitive. Back in 2019, Southwest Guilford won the league table, finishing second, and I made the three a third round Parkland and Western each finished five and five in conference play, and I Dudley played a handful of schools. Tough. I've been L. Smith. I'm also in the mix There. I was talking about the people try conference And what competitions like a night and night out for your Hornets. It's a battle every single night. I mean, you got I mean, Mount Tabor. We play them close, and, uh, in school history, we've never beaten them. And so, you know, that's that's obviously what That's one of the teams we have to focus on. They're really good. They're well coached. Uh, Southwest Guilford. Same way. They always seem to have the right players. They get a good mix. Uh, you know, they're there, Coach, man, he's a great coach over there. Gets those guys, uh um going Parkland. We played Parkland so close every time. And two years ago we had him one to nothing. With a minute and 43 seconds left. and lost 2 to 1. And that was the heartbreak for my kids. But that was kind of a catalyst force at that time. Eso those three right there. We really have toe. We got We can't make mistakes against those three. And of course you don't. You never count out earlier, Smith. So we're a strong conference this conference. We can beat each other up. Unfortunately, the only one c gets to go to the to the playoffs. So this will be about I say, are you kind of just alluded to this with only one playoff berth at stake. But just how we're gonna prepare your team to approach each outing with those limited postseason opportunities on the line, Right. Well, of course we have to take it one game at a time and we open up with Mount Tabor that XKE force because if we can play well again against them and beat them, then I think that takes our confidence level up so much more. And we have a lot of confidence. Our guys air hungry, they they're tired losing to these teams. So, uh, you know, they're coming out. They're already just they want to get this season going and and play because it's been so long. But, you know, that's you gotta play. You got Parkland a second. So we got two teams, right? Right up top that we have got to play well against can't make mistakes on. We've got to score goals. Eso talking about on the non conference slate now Page Northwest, Guilford, Cornerstone Charter Academy and Grimsley are the four teams you all played before the people try at a conference. Competition gets underway to Kobe. 19. Impact finalizing these out of league games. And just what do you know about these four local opponents? Specific. We had these games on our schedule. We had to pick non coms. Ford, uh, really full nonconference games that we could play, and we've talked Page. We talked with Page who won't really start that rivalry back up. And we started Grimsley last year, Northwest of when we played in the past. We didn't play him last year, but those were three teams right there that, you know, they're they're showcase teams, I think in the county, and, uh, we wanna we have to show people we can play with the big teams because, uh, that that's kind of going to set the tone for how we do our how we play in our conference. But they're tough. They're all three. Tough. Um, Page has, you know, I got some players that flat out heard you, and so we gotta make sure we gotta We're good. Our defense has to make sure they're on their best game against page Northwest. Always good. We just have toe. We can't be intimidated by these teams. We have to go out and and really show that we're ready to play with them. So does Western Guilford have a team motto or a particular theme for the upcoming season? Yeah, One of the things that will we kind of tossed around. We really didn't decide on anything, but one of the things was Carry on. Yeah. You make a mistake. Carry on. Uh, you know, something happens. Carry on. And so that would probably be our If we had anything, any model, anything would be Carry on. Let's get this done. Original one was Don't stop Children until the final game in the States play. So, uh, you know that that could be our this year. We just got to make the playoffs first. So last question here, Coach. Just what needs to happen in particular for our Western guilt for to generate more success in 2021? Well, you know, we're on the right path. Our program is solid. Uh, this is this is the first group that I've had this phone for all four years. Some of the guys have played with me since freshman. What we have to do is we've got to We've got to be solid as a team. We can't We can't have one person out there that thinks they're, you know, better than anybody else. We've got to really play as a team. We gotta make use of our speed and score a lot of goals defensively. We just got to keep the ball out of the middle and out of the box and, uh and yeah, e think that's gonna be our successes If we just play solid, Not a lot of mistakes make good passes, which we did last night. We really connected on a lot of passes and didn't really try to play a lot of, you know, long balls over the top. We just really past and set ourselves up for opportunities. That's what we've gotta do all the way through the copper