Off to a hot start, West Muskingum enjoying the moment
ZANESVILLE, Ohio- When the high school soccer season kicked off, the West Muskingum men’s soccer team knew they had the talent to be successful. A month into the season, the Tornadoes are unbeaten, in first place in the MVL and state ranked.
West Muskingum coach Ryan Barks said, “With everything that’s going on with Covid-19, it’s bittersweet. There’s so many negative things in the world and to watch these guys come out and play the game the way they’ve been playing it, it’s awesome.
It’s been quite the start for West M this year. The tornados sit in first place in the MVL with a record of 10-0-1 and are ranked 15th in Division 3 in the latest OHSAA soccer rankings.
“We knew the potential was there obviously but didn’t know exactly what our opponents we’re gonna bringing. All in all as far as the caliber of players that we had and some other puzzle pieces that we had come in, we knew it could be something pretty great, pretty special,” Barks said.
Senior striker Chase Chapman said “We knew we had the talent but you can never expect to be like this, it’s always nice, but I never expected it.”
In his 13th season as the coach at West Muskingum, this is the best start Barks has had with the tornadoes. Even with the hot start Barks and the team knows the jobs not finished.
Chapman said, “We need to talk a lot more. We also need to get closer, which we have as time goes on but we just need to get closer. Keep talking start seeing vision better, seeing plays ahead of time. just little things.”
Barks said, “The idea is focus on the next game and what’s done is done be proud of it but don’t duel on it because if you do you get comfortable and when you get comfortable things don’t go the way there suppose to.”
While the Covid-19 pandemic keeps holding a cloud of uncertainty over the season, the tornadoes are still finding ways to have fun, like playing a simple game of hand ball during practice.
“It let’s them cut loose a little bit sometimes you get too serious in the moment and again realize why we’re here, is to have a good time. They get to chucking, get to laughing, get to singing, it’s a good time,” Barks said.
