Niwot boys soccer beginning new season with increased hunger

In what could have been considered a transitional season following the graduation of eight seniors, the Niwot boys soccer team continued its winning ways last fall and reached the second round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

Last season was fun, said seventh-year head coach Stephen Dimit, but the Cougars are now setting the bar a little higher.

"This is a hungry year," Dimit said. "They had a lot of fun last year, but I think they also really want to build on what they started. That's a great place to be coming in and we have a lot of returners. They've been fired up for quite a few months actually right now."

Of those returners, Dimit was impressed with how many of them have taken a greater leadership role. He was particularly excited about the leadership he is expecting from Orlando and Aldo Lopez in their senior year. The Cougars also have a pair of senior goalkeepers in Matthew Hansen and Javier Amaya, who are "always big leaders," according to Dimit.

Niwot's roster holds nine seniors to begin the season, and with seven returning juniors lending their wisdom as well, the Cougars are anticipating a successful season.

"The boys are setting their expectations higher," Dimit said "They've seen teams be really successful in the past and they want to be one of those too. In this case, this year, it's not even really me. This is player-driven right now and they're pretty excited."

The two biggest returning scorers for Niwot are juniors Jett Feiner and Miler Verbeck, who tallied 10 and five points, respectively, as sophomores.

"Both of them had really good springs with their club teams [and] scored a lot of goals," Dimit said. "They're both really creative players hungry for goals. They are a few of I think the many that are looking to fill in some of the goal-scoring this year."

Class of 2022 Niwot graduate Azael Marrufo's production may be the toughest to replace with his whopping 18 goals out of Niwot's 39 goals scored last season. But, quick turnover is a part of high school sports, and Dimit said losing a star player is nothing new for Niwot.

"It seems like every year we have a great goal scorer or two or three even graduate, and I think the guys have learned now that they're not looking around for somebody else to show up," Dimit said. "They've seen it happen so many times. Somebody's always going to figure it out and I hope that this year, it's five, six, seven guys that are really lighting up the scoreboard."

Senior Eric Walker is an intriguing candidate to be one of those new producers. After watching Walker help Niwot's 4x400-meter track and field unit to a state title in May, Dimit decided to put that speed to use and quickly converted him from a defender to a forward.

"He's going to go out and try to be a goal-scorer because we figured one of the faster kids in the state might be really fun to watch up there," Dimit said. "He's made some huge steps in his new position this year, so we're...excited to see what happens."

Dimit added that he is also excited to watch junior Josh Ary and sophomore Jay Scharfe, both of whom are set to make their varsity debuts at outside back.

Taking a look at the Cougars' schedule, five of their six non-league opponents were playoff teams last year: Pueblo West, George Washington, Denver North, Centaurus and Silver Creek, with only Wheat Ridge missing out on the postseason. Niwot opens at Pueblo West on Aug. 18 and 4A/3A Longs Peak League play begins Sept. 22 against Northridge.

"The non-league schedule is going to be a real test this year," Dimit said. "We went out and we found some teams that I think will be contenders this year. Pueblo West is usually a second-round playoff team in most years, as are many others... It's just a really good set of challenges for us. We learned last year that if you want to go far, you have to test yourself early and grow from that."

Veteran Brett Butrick (junior varsity) and Raeanne Sanchez (C team) will head Niwot's lower levels as part of Dimit's coaching staff.