STAC BOYS SOCCER: WAVERLY'S RYCK PLEASED WITH PROGRAM'S GROWTH AS 2023 PRESEASON BEGINS (18 PHOTOS) (2023-08-22)

By TIM BIRNEY
Valley Sports Report
WAVERLY — Waverly boys soccer coach Eric Ryck is pleased with his team’s offseason, and excited by the program’s numbers as the 2023 preseason camp gets under way.

"I love it, it’s always exciting to get back on the field.

"We had a good offseason," said Ryck. "We had a lot of kids playing soccer — playing a lot of 8-v-8, and we had a lot of kids playing other sports, and succeeding in other sports — it was really good."

"Our numbers are very good. We’re going to have 21 or 22 this season," noted Ryck.
"We’ve been growing … we also have 14 or 15 on the modified team.

"The best numbers we’ve had since I took the program over," he added.

Ryck is hoping the growth in numbers continues.

"I would love to get a JV program going," he said. "We’re creeping toward that … I’m not sure if we can get there, but I would definitely welcome it.

"We have a good group of kids playing in the younger levels, so it could happen," added Ryck. "At best, I think we’re two or three years away from that, at the earliest."

With Waverly’s move to the STAC, the preseason is even more important.

"Our preseason focus is getting mentally and physically ready to compete," said Ryck.

"We have a lot of veteran players, but we have a lot of new guys, too. We’re trying to polish the veterans, and bring the new guys up with them," he noted. "It’s really cool that we have 22 guys, so we can play 11-v-11 in practice. I think the growth is going to be good the year.

"We’re also trying to increase the expectation over what we’ve had in the past. We’ve seen some success, and we want to continue that success, so we’re just trying to build on what we’ve done.

"Every game we play (in the STAC) is going to be a Sectional quality game," he added.

Waverly is participating in a joint training session with Athens and Elk Lake Saturday at Athens.

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IN PHOTO: Waverly coach Eric Ryck. … PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.

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