Podcast: Previewing the 2023 New England prep boys and girls season

Worcester Academy hoists the NEPSAC Class A championship trophy last November. (Matt Langone/NESJ)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is Seamans Media managing editor and prep girls soccer writer, Mike Zhe.

With the New England prep boys and girls season slated to kick off in full force this week, Zhe joined host Matt Langone to preview the 2023 campaign. Who are the teams in the region to keep an eye on, who are the players to know, and what are the storylines to follow?

We did our best to comprehensively answer these questions, both on the boys and girls side of things.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

On an intriguing league race to pay attention to on the girls side:

Zhe: “There’s a couple ways we could have teed this up at the start. Obviously, you have a three-time defending Class A NEPSAC champion in Buckingham Browne and Nichols. And we’ll certainly talk about that program as we get into this podcast. But the Founders League is very intriguing for me. You look at a lot of traditionally strong teams that in the last two years, since we’ve been back from the pandemic, have really left a mark in New England soccer. Two years ago, (the Founders) produced five of the eight class A playoff teams. Last year, it produced three of the four semifinalists in Class A.”

On forecasting the fall:

Zhe: “There’s going to be surprises, and, no, I don’t know what they’re going to be. That’s why they’re surprises. I think we’ve had a pretty good body of work now. So you go over the last two seasons, you call it the restart seasons, right? We missed out on 2020, and we’ve seen the programs that have really established themselves as the ones to beat. I’m not saying you can pick the tournament fields right now in Class A and Class B, because obviously some teams are going to be better than they look on paper.”

On Worcester Academy’s chances of repeating as boys Class A champs:

Langone: “They’ve lost one game in the last two years, so they’re the No. 1 team in our preseason Top 10, because the rule is before you can get knocked off that top perch, someone has to knock you off. They still have plenty of talent, they still have Dean Linden as their goalkeeper — he’s committed to UMass. They have a great defensive player in Christian Haikal, who is committed to Providence.”

On the power structure of the Independent School League on the boys side:

Langone: “(Milton Academy) is going to be right in the mix again. I think they would be the favorite in talking to other ISL coaches. They’re the first team that everyone comes to and says, ‘yeah, they’re going to be the one we’re chasing.’ You can look at Rivers. St. Sebastian’s had a great year last year, and Brooks won Class B.”

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