Senior forward Christian Mathieu dribbles past a Watkins Mill defender.

by Noah Bair ’24

After a 4-7-1 finish in the 2023 regular season, the boys varsity soccer team saw their season come to an end at the hands of Kennedy on October 25, losing 2-1 in their first round playoff game. The team had beaten Kennedy 1-0 in the regular season.

Despite the disappointing end to the season, the team was competitive throughout the season, led by their senior captains Andy Ruiz and Johnny Markos. Both used their experience and maturity to lead the team in the right direction. Ruiz was aware that “many of the other players look up to [his] style of play,” so he “always pushed others to be better by keeping a positive attitude on and off the field.”

By keeping this mindset in the forefront during the season, the team worked together and blended into a team with strong chemistry, something coach Paul Homon preached throughout the season. “The biggest challenge for the team was getting familiar with each other as players,” Homon noted. “We can’t be 24 players playing for 24 different teams; we have to all be playing for one Sherwood.”

Even though the team was able to come together and expand off each others’ skill sets, it was not without a loss of many seniors from the 2022 season. “After losing the 12 seniors last year, I feel like the seniors this year helped to account for the players lost from last season,” said Markos. With the majority of the team being non-seniors, he pushed the idea that the seniors had to “encourage all the non-seniors, to always play with all their heart on the field.”

The team had multiple impressive streaks during the season, including a span of two weeks from September 27 to October 6 where the team went 3-1 with monumental wins against Wootton, Kennedy, and rival Blake. Despite this momentum going into the end of the season, the team finished with tight losses against powerhouses Churchill and Quince Orchard to close out the regular season.

With eight seniors set to graduate this year, the Warriors will certainly need to make up for minutes and leadership lost in the offseason, but they have a wealth of young talent in the form of juniors and sophomores throughout the roster. Additionally, the boys junior varsity team finished 6-3-1, a superb record that features many young players that Homon will certainly look forward to introducing to the varsity team next season and in upcoming years for the future of the program.