For the first time in 22 years, the boys Newton soccer team reached semi-finals at state. The team faced Maize and won, which got them into the semi-finals andwhich ended with the boys team getting fourth at state for 5A. Throughout the season the team went up against 16 teams before regionals with a 14 to 2 record.

Regionals were held at Fisher Field in Newton, due to the boys soccer team being in a higher seed in the region. The team has approximatelyroughly 41 players, with around 20 of the players were able to play or be on the sidelines during the state and regional games. The team started their season in August; however, they were able to get some practice in during the summer before the actual season began.

“I think that going into this year, we all expected to be where we are today,” Senior Ezra Entz said. “We all had really high hopes at the beginning of the season, we all knew we were going to be a special team this year. It was still a surreal feeling when we won regionals. This season has been great, definitely the best soccer team I’ve played on. I believe we have the best record of all-time for Newton High Soccer with high hopes of winning state this year, so you could say it has been a pretty good season.”

Senior Colin Hershberger has been on the high school soccer team for all four years, but, has been playing the sport of soccer for 14 years. Hershberger said that he was able to improve his sportsmanship by training with coaches during the off season. The NHS boys team has around three coaches this season.

“Last year we lost to Maize South in the regional finals and we decided there that we weren’t going to let that happen this year and everyone worked really hard in the off season, and winning most of the games during the regular season was a goal of ours so that we got a good regional seed so we didn’t have to play the top teams first,” Hershberger said. “This is the best record Newton High School boys soccer has ever had and this is the second time we have ever got to the final four, first time was in 2000. Every team makes it to regionals, but reaching state was a goal of the teams and I couldn’t be more excited to experience this my senior year.”

Due to the team getting 4th, they were able to get a plaque to bring home to go into the trophy case. During the season, the team was able to film games and watch the film to see what could be improved upon.

“I was very happy to get 4th, at the start of the season we kinda knew we had something to prove and I think that we did that,” Junior Abram Wall said. “There wasn’t much of a difference before my game in terms of preparation. I just tried to treat it like any other game. I felt super happy that all our hard work in the pre-season and during the season had paid off and really excited that we could get the experience of going to play at that level.”

Head coach of the team Scott Jantzi was named Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League division one coach of the year on Nov. 14, 2022. Jantzi just wrapped up his 18th year of being the head coach. Janzi was able to experience the last time the boys went to state in 2000 as a head coach for the team.

“We talked a lot about deserving to be there. We matched up well against everyone we played this year. We also watched a lot of films to improve our game. Keeping them motivated was easy. They knew they were able to compete with anyone we came up against. I am extremely proud of this group of student-athletes. I want to thank the fans that came out and supported us all season. It was great seeing how much this team excited the community.”