EDENTON — In a fiercely competitive match, moved on short notice to an unexpected start time and a neutral field, Edenton’s soccer boys fell to Voyager Academy in a third-round playoff meeting. Assistant coach Dr. Thomas Di Martino discussed the match and the unheralded Aces’ wildly successful season with NC multi-sport great, Kyle Long.
Aces finished the season (16-6-3, 7-1 in the Albemarle Athletic Conference) — Voyager clipped the Aces 3-1 on Monday at home. And this editor will say — congrats and GOAL on a great season.
KL: Coach, a difficult end to an unexpectedly successful season.
Coach D: A successful season, Kyle, that ends with a loss, is always difficult. The state championship wasn’t in the cards for us.
KL: But you do have AAC conference co-championship!
Coach D: Indeed, Kyle and that’s a sweet one! This is our school’s first soccer conference championship in the history of the program, which dates back to about 1994 or 1995.
KL: Your success wasn’t expected, Coach.
Coach D: No, Kyle; not by most observers. We surprised a lot of people.
KL: Did this team surprise you?
Coach D: Absolutely, Kyle. In summer training, and in the beginning of the season, we were another mediocre team, playing unintentional football. But something happened to these boys when we got drubbed by Washington on September 15. That humiliation may have been the best thing that happened to us.
KL: What changed, Coach?
Coach D: Well, one thing is that they were on the receiving end of football played correctly. And the boys saw firsthand, painfully, how effective intelligent play is. And, this is a rare group; because, instead of turning dark with the humiliation—instead, they bought into learning the things that Coach Turner and I were trying to teach them to build a system of play. They chose to buy into getting better. Not all teams do that.
KL: Why this team, Coach?
Coach D: This is a special group of kids, Kyle. Crucially, we had some players who were true leaders. Who lead quietly, with conviction. Kayden Parker comes right to mind. A captain in every sense of the word. Peyton Mattera. Elvis Manzo. There are others. They set the tone and every day the boys came out ready to work. We didn’t have a lot of drama.
KL: Tell us about the Voyager Academy match, Coach.
Coach D: Kyle, Voyager is a good team. They were a final four team last year. They have good touch and polish. They’re bigger and stronger than we are and were able to have the better of the midfield with physicality. It’s to their credit that we had trouble getting our structure there. That said, our boys played well, and with plenty of heart. That match could have gone either way. We certainly had our chances. It was, really, a one goal differential. Voyager’s extra goal came in the dying minutes, when we’d committed weight forward, needing the equalizer. Even then, our defender was in good position but lost footing on the muddy surface. That’s part of the game.
KL: A home match was expected. There was an issue with the neutral pitch.
Coach D: A tough situation, Kyle. We expected to be at home. With the heavy rains of two days, our field was partly under water and unplayable. The option was to delay the match. But, then, if we’d won, we’d have had to play again without a rest day. Since the neutral pitch has no lights, we had to start much earlier than we’d planned. A lot of our fans couldn’t get there because of the time or didn’t know about the late switch.
KL: Coach: final thoughts about the season?
Coach D: Kyle, I’m privileged to have been associated with this team. I am so very proud of these boys. I think that this squad compares favorably with any team our school has ever produced; and I’ve seen them all. Our final record is 16-6-3. We were 7-1 in conference, are AAC co-champions, and beat a team that was, at the time, ranked #1 in class in NC. We started from mediocrity and became a truly high-quality team, competitive with the best. I am grateful to Coach Turner and AD Mattera— that they invited me to be a part of it all.
KL: And next year?
Coach D: We lose some magnificent players, some wonderful kids, to graduation. They will be missed but not forgotten. We expect a solid nucleus to return. We are hindered in that we don’t have ready access to a club system, like our quality competitors do; but we hope to be able to work with our younger guys in the off-season to help them develop. We really want to re-establish a JV squad next year to help our young guys. We’re reaching out to the middle school program in the hope that we can support each other’s growth.
KL: Coach, thank you for talking.
Coach D: Kyle, thank you for your continuing interest in the team.
Kyle Long is a former undefeated state champion NC high school wrestler. He was also a high school lacrosse player and a collegiate wrestler. He is a reigning National Champion adaptive rock climber. Kyle is married to former J. A. Holmes girls’ soccer star Jennie Di Martino, and is the father of Margot Josephine Long.