Jason Deering will succeed Mark Sleggs, who reached the 100-career win mark in 2016.

Deering had accumulated a vast amount of coaching experience including at the modified level the last three years, all the divisions of the Southwestern Soccer Club, fall travel teams and 15U and 18U spring travel teams.

“They wanted to do a midnight practice last night,” Deering said when asked about his team’s excitement heading into a new season. “They’re amped up, they’re ready to go, they asked for extra individual drills and all kinds of stuff. They’re completely amped up and ready to go. It’s my first season. I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, so it’s like we all just cant wait for (our first game) against Westfield/Brocton.”

A plethora of weapons will be at Deering’s disposal heading into 2017.

Above, Southwestern’s Esteban Diaz marks a teammate during practice Monday. P-J photos by Cody Crandall

Southwestern will return five Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association West Division All-Stars from last season: Esteban Diaz (First Team), Chase Stevenson (Second Team), Justin Morris (Honorable Mention), Michael Cammarata (Honorable Mention) and Michael Carnes (Honorable Mention).

Esteban Diaz and Morris were Post-Journal All-Stars in 2016 as well.

Diaz found the back of the net seven times and dished out seven assists for the Trojans while Morris scored 14 goals and collected two assists.

Bryce Deering was another one of the returners Southwestern’s newest head coach mentioned.

“They all have experience playing with each other,” Coach Deering stressed. “Just that experience and the playing together should help them immensely. They have the will to win and they’ve been working their butts off to keep what we’ve been doing here going. That crew, they just work so hard.”

The Trojans’ Justin Morris passes the ball. P-J photos by Cody Crandall

With that said, the Trojans will have to make up for the loss of a special senior class from 2016, too.

Key seniors on last year’s team included Sebastian Diaz, who was named an All-Western New York Small School selection after recording 13 goals and eight assists; Nate Mogenhan, who was named a CCAA West Division Second Team All-Star; and Jake Ferrari, who was a CCAA West Division Honorable-Mention All-Star.

“… (It’s) not just Sebastian last year and Nate Mogenhan, it’s the year before (as well) with Nick Cooper and Jackson Rybicki,” Coach Deering explained. “That leadership that they’ve experienced (has helped them). … I’ve already seen the leadership just exploding out of these guys. They’ve had the examples put in front of them and with their experience on the field, I just think they’re going to be the next ones up.”

When it comes down to it, Southwestern could potentially have a lot to look forward to this fall.

“Following Coach Sleggs and what he’s been able to do over his soccer career coaching here, we just have to keep the level up,” Coach Deering emphasized. “It’s a tough league. There’s a lot of really good teams in this league. It could very well be (one of) the toughest league(s) in Western New York in my opinion. It’s pretty close in competition level. We have to make sure that we’re practicing hard, staying extremely focused and keep that will to win and keep going. … My expectation is just for them to keep their minds straight and don’t go backward. We want to keep what we’ve been doing going.”