East soccer team always has right answers at tourney time

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Before you can set forth on winning, you must first sit down and take your quiz.

Lincoln East boys soccer coach Jeff Hoham likes to give quizzes to his players.

The questions would stump any outsider. Sometimes they stump the insiders.

≥We do OK,≤ said East junior Ben Welch. ≥We get a few right.≤

Q: Who was the East player to score the game winner in the π96 state final?

Q: Can you name the programπs all-time leading scorer?

Q: Is the upcoming game on Abbott Field 13 or 14?

Cliff doesnπt make notes for Hohamπs questions. Some players remember the answers. Some forget. Hoham keeps asking.

The thinking: Respect your programπs history and maybe itπll help push you to make your own.

The only problem (if you want to call it that) for the players is this: Thereπs becoming a lot of history to remember.

East boys soccer has become a model program in the state. On Saturday, the defending Class A state champs will make their 14th straight appearance at the state tournament against Bellevue West. No Nebraska boys team has made state as many times — 16 — as East.

The Spartans enter this yearπs tournament in Omaha at 15-0, the No. 1 seed. Thing is, this was supposed to be a ≥rebuilding≤ year.

Then again, 2004 was supposed to be a rebuilding year. So was 2002.

≥Each year I go into it thinking, åWell, we might not very well make it (to state) this year,π≤ said Hoham, who is 78-6 since taking over head coaching duties in 2002. ≥So each year I keep a balance, an even keel, and I donπt really emphasize it to (the players), but internally itπs in the back of my mind as something that I know eventually has to come to an end.≤

Hoham said it wonπt devastate him the year the string of state berths does end. But ≥itπs important to understand those things just donπt happen by chance,≤ he said. ≥They come through a lot of hard work and dedication, and a revolving door of players who buy into a philosophy.≤

That such amazing consistency would find the Spartans on the field shouldnπt be a surprise considering how consistent they try to stay off it. Consistency is one of Hohamπs favorite preaching words.

The Spartans practice the same time every day on the same dandelion-littered field. No matter who their foe is, they maintain the same basic style of play.

Players are told by their coach to wake up at the same hour every morning and go to bed about the same time every night. They take the field the same way every game, walking out together in a straight line while holding hands.

While the state berths and four state titles are certainly part accredited to the abundance of soccer talent that lives in the neighborhoods around East, thereπs been more to it than that.

Fitting guys who arenπt Super State players into roles where they can max out has been as much a key to the success as anything.

Senior Brad Fullerton is a prime example. He hadnπt played soccer since he was 12, but he went out for the team this year. He hustled his way onto the roster and now fits a role as a part-time wing. Heπs not the teamπs best player, but when he does play, he makes things happen.

≥Just coming in and joining the team for one year and having to live up to those expectations, itπs just awesome,≤ said Fullerton, who was 3 the last time East wasnπt in the state tournament in 1992.

Last yearπs state title team lost 10 seniors, including Mike Johnson, who was a Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year.

Being just like that team is impossible, so the Spartans didnπt try. They formed their own identity — complete with a talented Italian transfer named Stefano DπAdamio — and set off to do it the way they know how.

≥Our main goal is to be the best we can be,≤ Welch said. ≥If we lose, we lose — as long as we played our best.≤

In the process of this season, Hoham said this team has grown especially close. Theyπve taken a lot of quizzes together, after all.

≥The other day, I said to some of them, åMan, I can read your thought bubble during a game.π

≥They kind of laughed about that but I said, åWhen I get to know you that well, I can see on the field what youπre thinking.π≤