Halfway through the soccer season, Dougherty Valley’s Men’s Varsity team has been able to keep a tied record of 7-7, a major improvement from last year, where Dougherty Valley only won one game.

Dougherty Valley lost badly in their first game against Dublin High, the final score, 6-0.

Senior, Daniel Kim, Co-Captain of the Varsity team, confidently said one of his goals is to,” beat Dublin” and when asked what he would do differently he responded by saying,” We are ‘gonna’ win”.

Along with beating Dublin, both captains, Derek Cho and Daniel Kim agreed with their head coach Mr.Harari that their main focus should be making it to N.C.S. However, with both captains being new to their leadership position, and Coach Harari’s first year Coaching this team there is a lot of team building left to do.

“Because its players are new to the coach, the team is building that chemistry. It takes time”,Coach Harari explained

As his first year coaching, Harari made some short term goals, he expects the team and players to improve every day, which will result in winning week by week. Harari is expecting to come out of the 3 straight losses against Las Lomas, Dublin and Campolindo with even more wins. The team has tried to, winning against Alhambra in back to back games, 3-0 both times, but then losing to North Gate, 3-1.

The team itself is well mixed between classes. Including some starters from the Sophomore class, the team is diverse and is starting to have a good bond.

Derek Cho, Co-Captain, told the Tribune his view of captaining the team,”As a captain, you have to motivate your team, and that can get hard.”

With these growing pains, the team has still been successful in maintaining a tieing record.