Failing to meet preseason expectations is always a difficult pill to swallow, even when those expectations are lofty.
Such is the case for the ADM/Van Meter boys soccer team, whose 2014 season ended with a loss to eventual state champion Norwalk in a substate final. The defeat prevented ADM from making its fourth consecutive appearance at the state tournament, and stung the players for an entire offseason.
The Tigers (12-4) have returned to where they feel they belong, as 7th-seeded ADM will take on 2nd-seeded Cedar Rapids-Xavier at 2:35 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Class 2A State Tournament on Field 6 at the Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.
“We were really disappointed that we didn’t make it last season … We do have this kind of expectation now that we should be at the state tournament,” said Tigers head coach Bill Shields. “So from our point of view and especially from the younger kids’ point of view, this is obviously a big deal. and they are excited about the fact that, yeah, we are back at state again, and we kind of feel like that’s where we should be anyway.”
It hasn’t been difficult for ADM to make it to the state tournament over the past decade; the Tigers are making their sixth appearance overall, all since 2006, and fourth in the last five years. Having success once there has been another story.
ADM is just 1-6 all time in state tournament games, its lone win coming in 2012, when the Tigers when 1-2 and finished 4th. Getting win No. 2 won’t be easy against a deep Xavier squad.
“Well unlike some of the teams that we’ve played, they have more than two or three, let’s call them, ‘dangerous players’ or ‘recognized players’ that we have to be aware of or be focused on,” Shields said.
Shields added that the two teams ADM played in the substate playoffs, Atlantic and Creston, had only a few players the Tigers had to mark with an extra sense of urgency.
We’ll have the call for all of the Tigers’ state tournament games on 107.9 FM KKRF, K107, online at raccoonvalleyradio.com/listen-live and on the K107 app.