Duncan Day-Myron
The Gryphons soccer team is riding a wave of success, with 10 wins under their belt going into the playoffs, double their wins from the 2010 season.
Head coach Keith Mason credits some of that success to the Gryphons’ new recruits.
“We’ve had three excellent recruiting years in a row, particularly the last two. We’ve brought in a lot of young talent,” said Mason. “That’s made a huge difference to the team.”
The Gryphons really bet on the help of young talent, and younger players now make up the bulk of the squad. 18 of the 24 players on the team are first and second year students. Based on what a turn-around this season has been for the team, they were clearly wise to do so.
Having a team of mostly young players also helps insure the longevity of their success.
“Because we have such a young team, we see this as just the start of the new era, if you like, of the Gryphons men’s soccer team,” Mason said. “These players are only going to get better, they’re only going to develop into finer players […] and it will get stronger every year. We see this as the start of building a new program, one that’s going to be competing for championships for Gryphons soccer.
The Gryphons have been playing this season on the new Gryphon Soccer Complex, including their first playoff game against the Brock Badgers.
“It’s tremendous that we have probably the best facility in the CIS and to host the playoff game on there is an honour,” said Mason. “We’re really looking forward to it.”
Having such a great field to play on isn’t only an honour for Mason, but is also helping the team play as well as they have been this season.
“Having a quality facility to play and train on every single day is just a pleasure for the players and the coaching staff,” he said. “You can really play soccer the way it’s meant to be played. You add that to the quality we’ve brought in the past couple of years and it’s resulted in the season we’ve had so far this year.”
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