PreSeason Look at 2021

2021 Saint Thomas Aquinas Boys' Soccer

The 2020 school-year/soccer season was as strange as we could probably get, with COVID creating new fears daily. Somehow, we not only made it through that season, but made it one of Saint Thomas Aquinas Boys' Soccer's most memorable.

We won the program's 17th State title; we finished number 14 in the country; we placed a record 6 guys first-team All State (Mitchell Farrar, Drew Welch, DJ White, Max Bryson, Carter Diggs and Jacob Muckerman); Mitchell Farrar became a USC All American, Drew Welch and Mitchell Farrar became USC Scholar All Americans; 810 Varsity named DJ White Male Student Athlete of the Year for all sports in Kansas City.That Senior Class of Farrar, Welch, Russell, White, Bryson, Eames, Morissette, and Pope is one of the better senior classes we have had in soccer over the 33-year history at STA. And frequently 6 of those guys were in the starting line-up. So.

But we think the first part of this season that bandwagon is going to keep adding riders as Saint Thomas Aquinas realizes that this is one heck of group that those seniors left to pull the 2021-wagon.

Defensively we did lose 3 starters, but the two guys we bring back in Carter Diggs (goalie) and Jacob Muckerman (center back) were both first team all-staters and are both preseason All Americans. Junior right-back Gabe Garcia has been waiting patiently in the wings, and we think he will have just a great junior season. And we are bringing senior Mark Mason back from his midfield spot to become our second center back. He will bring both size and touch, not to mention a presence in the air. Left back will depend a lot on what we do with super-soph, Cooper Welsh. He's a great left back, but we also have been experimenting with him as the "6." We have two other senior lefties who have both played well in that left-back spot with Gabe Mohacsi and Joesph Ephrem.  Sophomore, John Weinrich, can play all those backline spots as well. And if we need reinforcements freshman, Miles Laws, has just had a great summer.

We are flush at goalkeeper with junior, Andrew Seger, a returning letter winner and sophomore Landon Rutter behind him. 

Our midfield does return two of our top players in senior Luke Konnesky and junior Barrett Kitts. They are the engine of our team. We are hoping to play those guys lots of minutes at the "10" and the "8" respectively. That will require Cooper Welsh to be able to handle the duties of the "6." Another senior midfielder, Joey Vance, is coming back from knee surgery. We hope to get him back mid-season and get him up to speed to give us a lift during the back half of the season. Juniors, Drew Weisner, Conner Murray, and Mathias Glickley all look like helpers in the midfield as well.

Up top we think we have a breakout year coming from our junior "9." Ethan Young came on strong at the end of his sophomore campaign, and he is now noted as a preseason Top 11 player in all of Kansas City. Junior Anthony "Swag" Consuegra flashes greatness on the wing up top too.  We do have a battle for minutes up top after that in sophomore, Liam Ryan, junior, Matt Seibolt, seniors Joey Pollock, AJ Delaney and Garrett Hall. How productive those guys are will have a lot to do with how successful we will be on the offensive end.

The Preseason Top 5 in Kansas offers up a preview of our schedule as we will play Blue Valley West, Blue Valley, and Blue Valley Southwest. Only Dodge City and us will not meet this year.

We will also wagon-up to Rockhurst and Lee's Summit, two of Missouri's best. And with our entry in the Blue Springs South tournament, we will play a very good Blue Springs South team, not to mention Guadalupe Center and St. Pius X.

And if Covid holds at bay, the Great River Classic will happen at the end of September, and we will travel to Iowa to meet some of the best teams the rest of the country has to offer.

We return our entire coaching staff of Coach Ewing (34 years), Coach Hammons (28 years), Coach White (17 years), Coach Ragsdale (8 years), Coach Luengo (8 years) and Eric Ewing (4 years). That stability ought to help steady to trip this year.

If all goes as planned, we should be heading down the Kansas Turnpike in November to play at Stryker Field in Wichita at the Final Four.  But there is certainly a lot of season and a lot of struggle that's got to take place before we wagon-up for that final trip.