With talent and experience to spare, all Coach Masi needs is one of his Warhawks to step up as a leader.
By JAMAL THALJI
Published November 18, 2004
SEMINOLE - Maybe Seminole needs a new mascot. Instead of the Warhawks, they could be the Bull's-eyes.
When you've been to two straight final fours, reached both state title games, won one of them, gone 46-12-5 over the past two seasons and dominated Pinellas County, naturally someone wants to knock you down a peg or two.
"Every team in the county knows we've been (to state) the past two years," said Seminole forward Richard Legg, the reigning Times' Pinellas County Player of the Year. "They know that we're probably going to have a good team, so they're going to step up and play their best soccer when they play us."
Indeed, but what kind of team will the Warhawks field this season? And does the potential for a third straight state title run lie within Seminole's roster?
Coach Rick Masi is confident this season's edition has the ability to do what the last two have done.
"(It'll take) a lot of luck and good health," Masi said. "But the players know what it takes to get there, they've been to the final four twice. It's just keeping them focused and working hard."
Last year's 22-6-3 state runnerup team lost eight senior starters. But Masi said the Warhawks have all the ingredients to plug back into that 3-5-2 scheme to make another run to the state final four in Fort Lauderdale.
Talent isn't a problem. There were 70 at the tryout, and Masi kept 26, 12 or whom are seniors. "We kept too many," he said, "because we don't have a junior varsity program, and the young players can really play."
And young Warhawks play. That's why experience isn't a problem after graduation.
"When we get up in game that I know we've won, I empty the bench," Masi said. "When we're losing a game I know we're going to lose, I empty the bench. So these guys have gotten a lot of experience.
"I've got a lot of guys who sat on the bench for two years and now it's their time."
Every returner lettered last year on a team that had 16 players score. But talent and experience aren't Masi's concerns, though the only starters back from last year are Legg, who had 31 goals, forward turned center-midfielder Joey Brown and goalkeeper Matt Celmer.
What does concern Masi is leadership. He said that was the difference between last year's state runnerup and the state champion team before it. Last year's team rallied from a two-goal deficit and lost the state title 3-2 in overtime to Davie Nova, despite outshooting the champions 23-10.
Center-midfielder Corey Ahern was a captain on the championship team, but no one took his place last year. That has to change this season, starting with Brown and senior defender Brian Popokowski.
"We didn't have that type of player last year," Masi said. "Last year's team, getting as far a we did, we didn't have a true leader to build these guys, and maybe I can have that this year with Joey and Pop."
Leadership isn't the word Legg would use, but he agreed there is an intangible quality the Warhawks lacked last season.
"I don't want to say leadership, but desire," he said. "We've been there before. Last year's seniors went back there once, this year's seniors, we've been there twice.
"So we know how to push the younger kids and what to do to get back there for a third time."
They'll have to learn the lessons Legg and other seniors learned on the first two trips.
"We just have to come together when the time is right," he said. "We're playing good now but we know what we have to do to get better. We know what we have to do, and when we do, we'll go back."
