By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
The hype for Bryan Vogel and his fellow New Hope senior soccer players began in the seventh grade.
“We heard, even back then, that our senior class would be the most successful to come through New Hope,” Vogel said.
The potential went largely unfulfilled as New Hope cycled through coaches and failed to register a winning season over the last five years. There was no rhythm and no blueprint for how to build the program.
Better late than never.
Vogel and the Trojans are 13-3-2 ahead of their Class 5A playoff opener against Center Hill today. They enter the postseason with two wins in their last three, including a 2-1 win over Starkville High, the program considered the gold standard for soccer in the Golden Triangle. Vogel scored one of the Trojans’ goals in the game, and for his efforts, Vogel is the Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
“In our heads, Oxford (which beat New Hope twice this year) is a huge mental block,” Vogel said, “but Starkville beat them, and when we beat Starkville, we knew we can beat Oxford. So I think that was the best point of the season for me, the seniors and the rest of the team.”
Vogel has starred at attacking midfielder for first-year Trojans coach Andrew Olsen and leads the team in assists. He’s also scored seven goals, including two in the past week, and has formed a lethal combination with Marc Juanico and Jake Crosson. Though he’s thrived as the key distributor in Olsen’s 4-4-2, he was unsure of how he’d fit in to the formation, especially early in preseason camp when he was initially pegged to play in a defensive midfielder role.
“[Olsen] really is good at telling players exactly what they need to do,” Vogel said. “It’s not the most complex system, but if someone isn’t doing their part, it’s easy to see and other teams can counter it. Our players, all of them know their job and can do it.”
It didn’t take long for Olsen to know what he had in Vogel – a tall, strong and skilled passer capable of fighting off defenders for possession. Olsen said he recognized Vogel’s skillset during the first week of training at Lake Lowndes and told him he’d be the main man in the middle of the park.
Vogel’s touch and vision have improved since last season, but his transformation into team talisman is mostly attributed to his demeanor, Olsen said.
“Last year, before I got here, they said he had some problems controlling emotions and getting out of his game,” Olsen said. “But now, even when the game is chippy, he’s focused and gets others focused.
“When we first started, our first goal was to win very game in the county, and second was to make the playoffs. He’s been focused on that all year and has been the vocal leader to keep the other guys on that path.”
Vogel, who has signed to play for Itawamba Community College, said the synergy between the players has been boosted by the simplicity of Olsen’s training methods. He noted the team’s early struggles to find the back of the net, and how greater attention to shooting drills improved the team’s goal-scoring clip – 3.6 per match – to its highest ever this decade.
“It was the same thing after Caledonia, where we knew we had to sharpen our passes,” Vogel said. “After that, we had more drills and started playing better.
“It’s not that it’s easy to correct the mistakes, but just everyone on the team has so much passion for the sport, even the guys who joined last year and this year. So when everyone is trying, it’s easy to get good things going.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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