A native of the Ivory Coast, Morisando Dioubate speaks very little English. French is his language. John Adams coach Alex Navarrette, who had his older brother Alpha the last three years, isn’t worried.
“He’ll be big for us,” Navarette said. “He’s a bull. He’s like a man.”
Navarrette compared Dioubate, an explosive to striker, to former Beacon forward Baimba Freeman, who scored 10 goals for the Blue Demons last fall.
Dioubate is just one reason for optimism at Adams. In their first year in the ‘A’ league, the Spartans finished second to Long Island City in Queens A West before falling to runner-up Beacon in the quarterfinals. Back are junior goalkeepers Jhonnatan Mejia and Willian Benitez and junior midfielder Rodolfo Paguada. Navarrette has high hopes for freshman midfielder Matthew Arman.
Still, Navarrette isn’t sure the Spartans are ready to take the next step: division title and making the final four. He was expecting to have center midfielder Jose Escobar back, but it turned out he was out of athletic eligibility, plus he lost Alpha Dioubate and fullback Rich Lawson.
“I have key players,” he said. “I just don’t have the horses yet.”
Bryant coach Byron Ortiz hasn’t lowered his expectations, but he isn’t making any predictions, either, after graduating half of his starting lineup off the team that went 7-4-2 and lost in the second round of the playoffs.
Because of that uncertainty, Ortiz is moving his returning starters around. Senior Sonam Sherpa will see time at midfield after playing sweeper last year; senior Guilherme Silva is at forward after shining at fullback; and senior captain William Ortiz is on the back line along with converted junior sweeper Justin Osorio. Ortiz is debating what do in net. He has sophomore Christian Calderon there, but would prefer to use senior Miguel Moran, who has resisted thus far.
Bryant has lost both of its scrimmages, to MLK and Thomas Edison.
“I know we will come back,” Ortiz said. “We start slow and we come up and up and up. That’s how we do it.”
John Ramirez isn’t coaching the Newtown boys soccer team anymore – he chose to remain with the girls when their season switched to the fall – but that doesn’t mean he isn’t involved. He has served as new coach Pat Torney’s right-hand man. He helps at practices, advises Torney what players to use, and plans to attend games, too.
“It’s kind of hectic,” he said.
As for his former players, the Pioneers, fresh off a 5-5-2 campaign and second-round playoff loss to city champion Martin Luther King Jr., have talent to contend in Queens A West.
After missing most of last year with a broken arm, junior Brayan Baena is back, teaming with speedy junior striker Bernard Redzic to lead the attack. Center fullbacks John Llanos and Brian Bayona will stabilize the back line. Diego Soto and Richard Sifuentes, who was academically ineligible a season ago, are key to Newtown at midfield.
Louis Llull looked around at his team on the first day of practice and hardly recognized anyone. It wasn’t surprising; Newcomers returned just one starter – senior midfielder Leonardo Oliveira – from last year’s playoff team.
“We’re starting from scratch again,” the coach said.
Making the transition even more difficult was the early start to the season. Newcomers, a school designed for immigrant students, usually gets an extra week to prepare for the season. Not so this year. As a result, the Lions have just 13 players, several with academic issues or paperwork problems. Lull is hoping more join once when classes begin Wednesday.
“It’s basically a wait-and-see type of thing,” he said.
Fernando Villegas lays out the plan for his Long Island City soccer team on its Web site: make the playoffs. Last year’s division-winning club made it all the way to the city quarterfinals before being upended by MLK, but that team graduated 15 seniors, including strikers Peter Touros and James Zaidan, and keeper Wilfredo Martinez.
Not all hope is lost. Juniors Esly Garcia and Wilfredo Valentin will split time in net, and junior midfielder Nikolaos Orsaris is expected to add to the attack.
Grover Cleveland graduated its leading scorers and starting goalkeeper. And that was off a team that finished near the bottom of the division at 1-10-1. Coach Chris Sullivan does have seven seniors – such as keeper Damian Kapuscinski – and eight juniors, so experience won’t be a problem.
It wasn’t so long ago that Aviation was a city championship contender. Just two years ago, the Flyers won Queens A West. But coach Mario Cotumaccio’s program has fallen on hard times. In 2008, they snuck into the playoffs at 4-4-4. Last fall, the Long Island City school hit its lowest point: an 0-9-3 campaign. Aviation will need a resounding season from senior Anthony Flores (five goals, eight assists) and senior keeper Vinnie Hernandez to rebound.
