Justin Wiesenthal believes his Rhinebeck High School varsity boys soccer team can be in a position to compete for and win a Section IX title. The defending Section IX Class C champs will be tested the first week of the season with games at Spackenkill and Webutuck.
Spackenkill is always a top team in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League, and Webutuck lost only two seniors from a club that qualified for the 2024 Section IX playoffs.
“Spackenkill is always a great team,” said Wiesenthal. “For the first match of the season, it’ll let us experience playing a high-level team, which is good. I hope to learn what our team has. I know these guys are hard workers.”
The Hawks are young with only four seniors after losing a number of key players to graduation, including all-state player Parker Ruger.
Rhinebeck returns senior Hunter Szabo, a 2024 All-Section IX Class C-D all-star playing his fifth season of varsity soccer.
“It’s amazing,” said Szabo. “You see people working as hard as they can. As a senior, that’s all you want. I think we’ll be strong and do something this year if we put our minds to it and get conditioned.”
The Hawks are spending the first week of preseason getting conditioned by running and participating in scrimmages.
“We have a very young team, but everyone looks great,” said Griffin Stewart, a junior in his third season of varsity soccer. “I can see us doing pretty well. I can see the young guys stepping up and having a great season. It’s going to take a lot of work.”
Stewart added, “I’ve been playing soccer with a lot of these guys since I was in elementary school, so I think we have that connection already built to get that chemistry to beat these other teams. A lot of these guys are my closest friends and we all get along so well.”
Following the two road matches to start the season, the Hawks will host Pine Plains on Sept. 9 and Millbrook on Sept. 11.
“Every year we lose some guys, but a lot of those guys do a great job instilling their work ethic and leadership in the younger guys,” said Wiesenthal. “We hope we can keep rolling, but it takes work.
“I think these guys are hungry (to win a section title). They’re going to have to keep working hard. The potential is always there to get there, but they’ve got to put the work in.”