As Wildcat Weekend approaches, the Rye Country Day Boys Varsity Soccer team look to dominate in their upcoming games. Coming back from an impressive run to the finals last season, the team hopes to have similar success this season. 

The team is led by co-captain Sameer Hirani ‘24, who reported that the team is currently 4-3 overall and ranked second in the Fairchester Athletic Association with a 2-1 record. Their leading scorer is Jonah Gurion ‘24, with 6 goals and 5 assists. Regarding their chances for winning the FAAs, Hirani stated that “the league is rather inconsistent and open this year. We seem to be one of the top teams the way we are shaping up and playing.” 

This may come as a surprise after valuable players Lior Gurion ‘22, Henry Geller ‘22, and Mark Volmer ‘22 graduated last year, but Hirani, Gurion, and Naki Pekarovic ‘24 provide the Wildcats with depth of talent similar to last year. Hirani said that the team still has “an experienced and older team on average than past years, which means we have a comfortable and fun dynamic.” 

In addition to the team’s fun, youthful spirit, the players are still concentrating on improving their game. Massimo Piccinini ‘24 stated that “Max Gracia-Tuñon [‘25] is our most improved player. Max started off the year sitting on the bench for most of the games, but recently he has started and played for the full 90 minutes. I’m very excited to see how he plays the rest of the season.”

The spirit and dedication of the Wildcat team will help this group prepare for the post-season and go one step further than the team did last year. Upcoming games are against boarding schools Trinity-Pawling on October 22 for Wildcat Weekend and Millbrook on October 26 before the team begins their pursuit of a FAA title, which begins on November 7.