Podcast: Which MIAA teams, players could make noise this season?

Newton North celebrates winning the MIAA boys D1 title last year. (Patrick Donnelly/NESJ)

On the latest episode of New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast, we previewed the upcoming Massachusetts high school season.

The 2025 MIAA regular season will begin in early-September for both boys and girls. Preseason training officially began this week.

Hosts Matt Langone and Matt Doherty discussed the teams and players to know, heading into the new campaign, and who might make some noise when the state tournament rolls around in November.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

On what makes high school soccer so great:

Langone: “Those are kind of the best times of your athletic lives — playing for your high school, playing for your community. That’s still a thing that resonates with a lot of players right now. It’s one of the things that makes high school soccer and all high school sports great. The atmospheres at these state championship games and these state playoff games are still awesome.”

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On a couple teams that could be poised for a strong season in MIAA boys:

Doherty: “There’s no reason why Newton South shouldn’t be one of the state’s best programs every year. So, I think watching them, they should be really good again this year. …  Needham is another one. Newton might be our biggest (high school) soccer hub, and Needham might be No. 2. A lot of great players come from Needham and they lost in two straight finals in 2022 and 2023.”

On how much MIAA games can help a player’s recruitment:

Doherty: “You always have breakout players. I think that’s the cool part about high school is there are players, who — and I feel like we’re pretty tapped into the scene — that we don’t even know that much about right now, who are going to become household names this fall.”

On an MIAA girls team that could be poised for a deep tourney run:

Doherty: “Medfield. I mean, Medfield is really good.”

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