The Palisade Boys soccer team makes the playoffs after 20 years. The boys soccer team at Palisade has always been a small program at Palisade High School and after 20 years, has made it to the playoffs. The dedication and the hard work of the players in the soccer team has led them to this accomplishment and show people that the Palisade soccer program is growing and is strong. To make the playoffs, the soccer team had to place in the top 32 teams in the league. Palisade placed 30th in the 4A division. This made Palisade eligible for the playoffs which hasn’t been done in 20 years. The Bulldogs are coached by Cody Klaiber, a teacher at PHS and his first year back at Palisade. When asked about how he organized practice Klaiber said “ We start with a technical warmup to get everyone ready to perform, and then move into small sided drills. After, we then moved into larger scale training that utilized what we were practicing to implement them better.” When asked about how he felt about going to playoffs his first year back at Palisade he replied with, “It was a good accomplishment, I feel like we could have done better at times, but overall it is a huge accomplishment for the boys to go for the first time in their careers and represent Palisade.” This shows Klaiber is reflective and is learning what does and doesn’t work for the team which is what a coach should see and reflect on after every performance. Senior James Uribe expressed his feelings on the team mentality after saying “The team aspect was great because we all had the same goal which was to make the playoffs.” Uribe also credited the success to the Seniors for providing great leadership this season. Uribe said “The secret for our success this season was our Seniors providing leadership.” This shows how big of an impact the older players had on the team, giving that drive and inspiring others to play hard and for each other. Senior Sebastian Urdaneta had this to say when asked about who he credits for his success; “I don’t think one person should be credited for our success, everyone on their team did their part in making this season our best year yet.” When asked about what the team could have done better to be more successful and last longer in playoffs Urdaneta said “I think that focus and determination were things that we started lacking in the second half of the season, and we could’ve done much better to further our season.” Sophomore Diego Ortiz commented on the team’s success stating, “The team played well this year, we played more united and played for each other. We worked on weaknesses and made sure those went away.” Ortiz expresses how he felt the team did as a whole and how the team’s success and what the team did differently this season. Ortiz also stated, “ Our captains also helped us this year a lot, they helped us take the time to stretch and kept the team in check whenever we were off task or feeling down.” Ortiz credits the leadership of the team as a driving factor for the team’s success. Even though Palisade did not advance in the playoffs their hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. Congratulations to the Palisade Boys Soccer team for proving anything is possible as long as you work hard and push through adversity.
