WEEKI WACHEE- The high school boys soccer season has been fully up and rolling through the winter months and Weeki Wachee has made sure to remain at the top of its game despite the current national pandemic.
The Hornets (14-2) are currently riding a four-game winning streak heading into the postseason for high school soccer and now Weeki Wachee will have a chance to show it belongs among the state’s elites. Weeki Wachee is fresh off a 3-2 win over Crystal River but head coach Shane Tarbox explained his team has been lucky. “Like most other teams we’ve had moments of quarantine, but we’ve been blessed with the timing of missing a couple of players, and other players stepped up to fill the gap,” Tarbox said. “We’ve also been blessed that we haven’t seen a whole shutdown of the team. Other than a few extra guidelines, coaching has been the same.”
When it comes down to facing the everyday difficulties of today’s high school sports during a pandemic, Tarbox knows his program faces challenges just like everyone is. With having a team that is well rounded from top to bottom from the coaches and players, the Hornets are having themselves a safe and successful campaign.
“We have been blessed every season with groups of young men who buy into our system and coaching,” Tarbox said. “We have had some measures of success every season this one has just been our best on the field. Along with our offense, our defense and goalkeeper have also done well keeping us in games and the opposition out of the net.”
A couple of the main reasons for Weeki Wachee’s success has been the play of strikers Jacob Kelly and Seth Tarbox. The duo has combined for 51 goals scored this 2020-2021 season and have accounted for 72 percent of the team’s scoring. Tarbox added that both have been crucial to the team’s winning culture. “Jacob has been an added blessing to compliment the talent we have on our whole team,” Tarbox said. “He has great pace and a nose finishing well. He and Seth Tarbox have combined for 51 goals this season. This team can go pretty far. They set a goal to win Districts, and go to the elite 8. They just clinched the Gulf Coast 8 Conference Championship. We will have to see, one game at a time.”
Andy Villamarzo can be reached at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @avillamarzo.
