The Cochrane High Cobras soccer team is gearing up for another year when they kick off Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) season on May 1 against the W.H. Croxford Cavaliers. The boys will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing fourth place finish at Divisonals after losing 5-4 in overtime to their cross-town rivals in the Bow Valley Bobcats. The team dealt with injuries and other obstacles but are looking to 'right the ship' as they say to make this season a memorable one. "We've been rebuilding over the last few years and we had a number of injuries last year that hampered us at both Divisionals and Zone Championships. We had a decent year last year ... but I'm really excited about this season," said Cobras head coach Carolyn McLeod. "We've got some young guys coming up and we have some really solid Grade 12s that really exemplify character, commitment and they're excited about the season. Every year is so different ... the guys change and the vibe changes, so it's always different from year-to-year." "Finishing fourth (in Divisionals) isn't ideal obviously. Bow Valley was strong, Bert Church was strong as well. Typically Canmore will be strong. Both Bow Valley and Bert Church will be strong again this year as well." "It's hard to say with us. We have a few club players, but again you have that problem where your club players end up having to go play club. With the girls, their season is done and the indoor season hasn't started yet so they can be pretty committed to our team. With the boys, the season overlaps so much." "Our goal is to win both Divisionals and Zones, but not at all costs. We want the group we selected to go out and have a good time, and we as coaches want to make sure everyone has a good experience so they'll want to come back and play next year." The team has had five tryouts and a few practices to prepare for the upcoming season and McLeod said the boys have been coming along nicely since cuts were made. "We officially started with 55 guys at the first tryout. By the time we had to make our first cuts, we're probably talking about 40 guys that we had to pair down ... it was pretty tough. We took 21 and we're red shirting a lot of them with the possibility of playing a couple red shirts throughout the season," McLeod said. "We're trying to hang on to as many as we can but at our divisional meeting, we were given a strict roster cap of 20 per game, so we're trying to respect that. But at the same time we like to air on the side of having a few extra players just in case." "We had a lot of interest in the program this year which is pretty cool and we're pretty happy with the decisions that we made. We as coaches are really hoping the boys jump on board and if these last few practices are any indication it's going to be a really good season. The new guys jumped right in and filling positions already so it's looking good." McLeod also added preparing for the year was a bit different from prior seasons due to weather. "This year was especially disruptive. Last year, we started in March and we had all this time to prepare, where this year we had to start indoors with all the snow and we had to cancel a practice because there was still snow on the pitch," McLeod said. "It's been hard to think the season was going to happen for a while there ... heck, it was hard to imagine spring was even going to happen with the bad weather." "I think we were one of the only teams who had to make serious cuts, where other teams have 17 guys show up and that's what they take. It was tough because instead of focusing on the team, we were more focused on doing things to try and select a team. It's going to be a wild, fast and furious start to the season. The boys have been great though, they're pumped and excited to get out on the pitch." The Cobras defeated the Cavaliers by a score of 4-2.
