2021 Cooperstown Boys Soccer Team
Editor’s note: Hot off their exciting state championship win on Sunday, we invited CCS Boys’ Varsity Soccer Coach Frank Miosek to reflect on his team’s brilliant 2021 performance. Here’s what he wrote.
By COACH FRANK MIOSEK
I have been the CCS boys’ soccer coach since 1988. Every summer I start to plan for the coming fall season. Before this dream job, I had another — I spent thirteen years at Cherry Valley as their first girls’ varsity soccer coach. Starting in 1971, I was a coach of youth soccer in Oneonta. So you can see I have a passion for the sport; as a coach and as a player: high school; college (Oneonta State 68-71), men’s travel Oneonta United, National Soccer Hall of Fame Team and numerous teams in the area until 2014.
Since we had no team in 2020 at C.C.S., Coach Spencer and I ran an open clinic for 7 weeks at the local field for all boys and girls grade 6-12.
With the start of 2021 school year and the challenge of putting our program back on schedule, we were all filled with extra energy. The sign up for boys J.V. and Varsity Soccer totaled forty-two. Coach Matt Hazzard (J.V.), Lucas Spencer (my assistant) and myself were very hopeful for the new season.
At the varsity level we had only three players with varsity experience from 2019. Ten seniors from the class of 2021 never got to play their senior season.
Pre-season was promising but we went easier than the past. The youth for the most part were not overall fit. We had a nucleus of boys who had played out of Albany on a select team. Luca Gardner-Olsen, Liam Spencer, Aiden Spencer and Colby Diamond were that nucleus.
Slowly, as the season started, we started to form a “family.” For a team to be truly good a bond has to evolve. This bond is the foundation of trust, respect and unity. Each match brought this “Family closer together, play became more refined, tactics developed, the success mounted.
We were challenged by normal occurrences. First some players started the season late because of family activities. Then a new fine player moved. Games got changed, bad weather formed cancellations. These disruptions interfered but did not stop our education toward being a very good team.
A few matches saw us fall behind. Some teams panic when this happens, some even exhibit finger pointing, not us. We faced the deficit and worked harder as a family to be victorious.
Soccer can be a cruel sport. There are matches where the team can do so many things right and yet be on the end of a loss. This team has persevered with every challenge, given all it has and been a group of young men who have each other’s back.
I have coached many fine teams, and numerous outstanding young ladies and gentlemen on these teams. This team is special like many I have been blessed to work with. The family foundation they have built, live by, play by will hopefully carry over in their lives and the communities they live in.
It’s not so much the wins you collect; it’s how you handle the challenges your family faces. Have a positive attitude, faith in the family, support for the family, trust that you will always be family.
The 2021 boy’s varsity soccer team is a family of unique and extraordinary strong bonds beyond soccer proficiency.
P.S: This truly is a “family” team: Three Spencer brothers: Liam, Aiden, Declan. Two Diamond brothers: Colby and Reily. Two Gardner-Olsen brothers: Luca and Roland.