“The worst soccer team in all of history.”

This is the punchline that highlights a video of the boys’ soccer team’s performance last season posted by a student from Mount Pleasant after a 14-0 defeat. This game seemingly punctuated a winless district record and cemented the team as the laughing stock of the region.

Defeat hurts, especially when it’s all that you know. That makes this season for the team of much significance as the new and established varsity players look to shed their former reputation both physically and mentally.

“As the season dragged on, it became hard to be motivated to give maximum effort,” junior Thomas Strutton said. “That failure has hopefully given us the extra drive to regroup this year and succeed.”

Rebuilding for the future starts with a change in mindset for the team. Rather than remain a divisive unit, players look to create a new sense of unity in the locker room atmosphere.

“Last year, we weren’t pushing ourselves hard enough off of the field to succeed,” sophomore Daniel Garcia said. “This season, we want to boost our chemistry as a team by staying encouraging and gaining self-confidence rather than putting others down.”

As always, the team has relentlessly been training in the offseason to surpass their own expectations, but this time around, a sense of urgency can be detected in those who wish to forget the past.

“We had many individual players stand out last season, but it didn’t amount to anything,” junior John Powell said. “We need to improve in many areas in order to get to where we need to be.”

While the team will hope to avenge all of their previous defeats, some contests stand out. Wins against cross-town rival Pleasant Grove and district opponents, who counted out the Tigers last season, remain top targets.

“We just have to take things one game at a time and then worry about the rest of the season,” Garcia said. “We’ll see what we need to fix after each result in practice and always look to improve.”

The climb back into district contention certainly won’t be easy, but many players look to create a solid foundation for younger players to carry on for years to come. 

“Discipline and cooperation have definitely been stressed for this season,” Strutton said. “The upperclassmen know that the rebuilding process will not be easy, but we look forward to reinventing the team’s identity for the younger players to adopt for the future.”

The Tigers begin their season on the road versus Evangel on Dec. 29.