Team Cohesion Key for Brainerd Boys’ Soccer This Season

Brainerd boys’ soccer is ushering in a new era this season.

Following longtime head coach Tom Grausam’s retirement, the team is under new but familiar management with former assistant coach Nick Weeks taking over the reins.

One of the ways Coach Weeks helped get the boys ready for the season and accustomed to his culture was by taking the team down to U.S. Bank Stadium for a tour this summer. There, he told them that was where they’ll walk out when they go to state.

These young kids, they have to have standards of when they go to a job or when they go to school, there’s standards that [they] have to meet. And it’s no different than here,” stated Weeks. “It’s making a goal daily, it’s making weekly, and it’s making our long-term goal where we we want to be.”

The Warriors have gotten out the gates slow to start 2024, dropping their first two contests against Rogers and Willmar, and they still have yet to record a goal.

“We have to take time, take patience, composure over the ball,” explained goalkeeper Odin Sjoberg. “We’re just trying to, you know, boot it up the field. Force it through, dribble through through three, four guys in the back – it never works. We got to take patience and figure out those set plays, passes around to get the ball ultimately in the back of the net.

And while offense translates to wins, another key component is fitness. Weeks made sure the Warriors stayed on top of during the offseason, where he put the boys through a grueling boot camp.

“It’s everything, because even last game we could see towards the end of the game, our conditioning wasn’t quite there. And that’s what caused that last goal,” said captain Hudson Juel. “We didn’t have enough energy to quite put out. We can do a full 80 minutes, so that’s what cost us the game, our conditioning. It’ll get better as the season progresses.”

While Warrior boys’ soccer knows better conditioning will help them outlast their competition down the line, the main takeaway from last year’s Section 8AAA Quarterfinal loss to Bemidji is the importance of playing together.

“Believe in each other and the coaches,” Juel emphasized. “I think that was an issue that we’ve had in the past is just not believing in our teammates and not having the chemistry. But I think this year specifically with our new head coach and our teammates, I feel like we’re getting along really well and I think that’ll show once we get to these wins racking up.”

The Warriors will look to record their first win in 2024 Thursday night as they host Detroit Lakes. The game starts at 4 p.m.