John Carroll Patriots- Jim Fendryk,12th season
We have a younger group overall with a good blend of upperclassmen experience and really promising talent at the Sophomore level. We are expecting to start 7 Sophomores for this upcoming campaign. Last year we went 1-2 in the short restart before they pulled the plug on us but that included a big home win against Loyola to open up and then losses to Curley and St. Joe. It would’ve been interesting to see how we faired against the other teams in the Catholic League. We are returning 7 starters and the big question we’ll have to answer from the start is how do we replace Michal Gradus’ productivity in the attacking third. Eric Schultz will be our Senior Captain playing at centerback, along with Junior Ryan Skandalis in the central midfield. We will be relying on both of them to provide guidance and direction for our group. We had some standout performances from our freshmen group last year and we’ll be expecting them to step up and put in some big performances. Guys in the Sophomore class like Eddie Smith, CJ Supan, Christian Rugel, Josh Petty, Connor Ellis and Tyler Mezzedra are looking to have a big impact in just their Sophomore years. I will say that this is the most talented team we’ve field at John Carroll in the 12 years that I have been the head coach. I’m really looking forward to seeing what these boys can do in what’s arguably the best high school soccer conference in the nation.