FREEPORT

Why not aim big?

Those were the words floating around Freeport High School on Thursday, as the boys soccer team held its first varsity practice with its newly-formed squad.

Like he does every fall, coach Joe Heathco had decisions to make. With a young returning group, was it best to choose players based on position, or simply choose the best overall talent?

“Little bit of a combination,” Heathco said. “You think about lineups and where people play and where they would be good. As we’re picking the team, we’re trying to make a complete team — not just a bunch of midfielders, which is what most people play.”

Heathco said that players get moved around and are asked to play different positions, but overall, he wants to field the “biggest, strongest, most skilled, talented” players.

This season, he’ll be leaning on five seniors and six juniors to help set an example for an inexperienced group — specifically on defense, where all four starters moved on. According to goalkeeper Joey Burke, part of this preseason is about “getting the defense back.”

But before the soccer starts, the Falcons have to be fit enough to play.

“We’ve been working on conditioning. A lot of conditioning,” Burke said.

“Incredibly important,” senior Maxwell Heathco said of fitness. “We know we’re going to have to work a lot harder. If we can’t technically beat a team, if we can’t skill-wise beat a team, we can out-work them.”

Thursday’s practice began in the huddle, where coach Heathco led the way on crunches and other warmups. His son Maxwell led other players through training ladders on the grass, focusing on speed and footwork.

The regiment is part of a rigorous fitness schedule that includes running 20 miles a week.

“The components are physical,” Joe Heathco said. “Trying to develop cardiovascular endurance, speed and power, and agility, but also it’s building team and mental attitude.”

Then comes the skill. After warm-ups the players strapped their shin guards on and started with simple two-person passing drills — two-touch, one-touch and chip passes. Before anything else, Heathco wants his players’ touch to be “as good as we can get it.”

Fresh start

As the season-opening home match against North Yarmouth Academy on Sept. 2 draws closer, Heathco’s lineup will take shape. For him, some of last year’s campaign, which ended in a painful 2-1 loss to Cape Elizabeth in the preliminary round of the playoffs, was on him. With a record of 4-8-2, he said it took the Falcons just a bit too long to mesh and figure out “how to be right.”

“I’m already spending a lot of time right now trying to figure out where I can get guys in the right positions that we’re going to be successful. If I can really do that, these guys are going to work their tails off and they’re going to be successful.”

Despite a history of success within the Freeport program, the last few seasons have been disappointing. The 2013 year ended with the same 4-8-2 record and a 1-0 loss to Fryeburg Academy in the prelims. In 2014, 4-9-1 wasn’t good enough for the postseason.

On paper, this season doesn’t exactly look like one for change — youth, inexperience and players from last year departing are the headlines.

Though, the players that are back aren’t reading them.

“Everyone here is really motivated,” Maxwell Heathco said. “Everyone here is working hard and we all want to win this year. The physical fitness, and just the entire preseason, has been brutal this year, so we’re building on that.”

“I like the team a lot,” Burke said. “We’ve become closer as a team from last year to this year. I feel confident in the team. I feel like we have a chance of getting somewhere with the team this year.”

Coach Heathco cited the recent Sweden women’s soccer team upset over the U.S. in the Olympics (a 1-1 draw decided on penalty kicks) as reason to believe. He urges his players to turn on the TV and watch the improbable happen, because it always does.

“Our goals are not just to make playoffs or be competitive. We want to be successful,” Joe Heathco said. “We have a history of being successful here and we expect to compete at the highest level.

“We want to win a state championship. That’s why we’re here. Why not? We have enough talent. It’s not like we don’t have enough talent. We really want to be there. It’s not just enough to make the playoffs.”

In Freeport’s way is an always-tough Western Maine Conference schedule that’s condensed into less than two months, counting preseason practice. Heathco and his staff will be asking freshmen and sophomores to contribute. They don’t have much time to prepare and, admittedly, they aren’t the most talented, biggest, or strongest side in the WMC.

So, why not?

“With the team unity we have, we’re shooting all the way,” Maxwell Heathco said. “Why not aim big?”