The JV2 soccer team returned to the Hackley soccer program this year. Headed by coaches Ruslan Beltsyk and Herbert Weltig, the team with only 10 players plus some borrowed from JV1 finished the season with a disappointing 0 wins, 4 losses, and 2 ties, both ties coming against Masters with scores of 1-1 and 2-2 respectively.
The Hackley boys varsity soccer team, with a final record of 4 wins, 5 draws, and 5 losses, with 20 kids led by senior captains Tristan Payne, Andrew Carpenito, and Mateo Arencibia, has been on a recent tear but just missed out on a NYASIS playoff spot after a very good season.
HBVS, as they are called, practice on the North Turf from 3:30 to 5:45 every day. The North Turf is one of the best fields on the Hackley campus. The team played every other school in the Ivy Prep league, including traveling to Poly Prep on the second day of the school year. The team had some success, including a great 3-2 win over Fieldston–Mr. Knopf’s alma mater– during the sting after overtime.
Mr. Knopf, the head coach of the varsity team, has a lot of experience with the sport, playing on teams at Fieldston and coaching teams for a long time. However, this is Ruslan’s first time coaching a soccer team in many years, as his background is in wrestling.
JV1 practices from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Van Eck, a field that is far away from the rest of the campus, and at this point of the season, is mostly dirt.
JV2, like JV1, practices from 3:30 to 4:30 on Delmoro Field, sharing with the JV girls and the middle school boys teams. They only traveled to Masters and Brunswick this year, with the rest of their games being at home on Van Eck field.
The team is often thought of as a team to give lesser-skilled players “an opportunity to play,” freshman JV1 player Theo Kim said. “It also feels like there’s somewhat of a hierarchy in the boys soccer system where varsity is placed at the top and JV2 is at the bottom.” It’s better to practice your skills and get better for next year on the JV2 team rather than not playing at all.
“Part of the priority of being on varsity is you get the good fields… you deserve to get the good fields.” Nick Dimopoulos said, a varsity player this year.
The JV2 team had much improvement over the season, with the team chemistry getting better as the season went on. The team went from getting destroyed every game to players such as goalie Asher Dundas making great plays to help the team.
While varsity has team dinners often, JV players were awarded with pizza after their final game, where both JV teams combined to beat Riverdale 6-0 on October 24.
“It’s not about where you start, it’s where you finish. I think that there will be some current JV2 players on varsity during their junior and senior years,” Theo Kim said. The JV2 team is looking forward to next fall, when they will play on JV1 and even varsity soccer teams in their future Hackley years. And for the varsity team, next year is a different year, and they will be possibly even stronger next year and make the NYASIS playoffs.
