The Fair Grove High School Boys’ Soccer season has been shut down due to a recent quarantine. The soccer players should be able to return to games on the 10th, if all goes as planned.

Matt Novak, second year Soccer Coach at Fair Grove High, believes that the only setbacks the team will suffer from is their over fitness. “We will come back like it’s the first day of practice and we have a game in a few days. [The] guys will have to get serious for practice and come in wanting to work hard. We are behind other schools now that we have to quarantine so the work rate will have to be better,” Novak stated in regards to getting back to their season. Novak is ready to possibly play Cassville on September 16th, “We have a lot of talent and a good group of guys…I believe we could make a deep run into the playoffs.”

Mitch Van Cleave, a senior and three year soccer player for Fair Grove, is eager to get back to the field. “This [quarantine] is going to be a large setback, but once we get to grinding again, we should be ready.” Van Cleave is understanding of the setbacks this quarantine has led to, “We don’t have to be perfect at the beginning or even the middle of the season, we just have to be prepared by the district tournament.” He believes that the quarantine has had an impact on the teams momentum, “We were just starting to get into the groove of things when we had to quarantine…However, Novak is going to be sending workouts for us to do at home so that we can negate that as much as possible.”

Preston Kothenbeutel, a junior at Fair Grove and three year soccer player, believes that going through this quarantine has taught the team a lot. “I think it gives us a better understanding of what we have to do to protect ourselves against COVID-19, and now we will work harder than every to not only for our health, but to continue playing to win,” Kothenbeutel stated. One piece of advice he would like to share with the rest of his team is ,“Just focus on working hard on school work, and doing whatever you can to stay conditioned. And no matter what, just remember this is only for a short amount of time, then we’ll be back.”

The Fair Grove Boys Soccer team was not able to play in the Cassville tournament, but are looking forward to play against Cassville for their senior night at home on Tuesday, September 15th, 2020.

9/17 Update: The soccer team has returned to play, and has 1-1 record since the quarantine, winning their first game against Cassville, and losing the second to Parkview.

Photos of the Cassville game can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17MGB2TbMjjcHcCtn0nbQnydxhqKblTq1?usp=sharing