Today is the first official day of practice for high school boys’ soccer teams in Iowa, and Carl Behne, head coach of the Greene County Rams, has been waiting a long time for today to get here. After qualifying for the Class 1A State Tournament in 2019 and losing in overtime in the quarterfinals to the eventual Champion Iowa City Regina, Behne thought 2020 could be the Rams’ year with Junior Gutierrez, the leading scorer in all of Iowa boys’ high school soccer, and other key pieces returning. Then COVID-19 prompted all Iowa high school spring sports to be cancelled. So, except for a some open gym time, it’s been almost two full years of waiting.

The coach said there are solid reasons to be optimistic about the Rams’ 2021 season, even though some key players graduated in 2019 and ’20. “I’m really optimistic! We’ve got five returning starters, a solid core of our defense, and some familiar faces in the sense that we have boys that would have been out and probably starters, or key contributors last year, that are now sophomores. We have juniors and seniors that were on the 2019 team, and a good core of freshmen that we think will help us right away.”

Coach Behne added that finding a goalie will be a priority during the early practices.