Highlanders coming off first CIF regional title
After Piedmont High School’s soccer team won the California Interscholastic Federation Norther regional Division 5 championship last year, the Highlanders are hunting for another successful season.
Coach Ben Russell said the team’s primary goal is to make the North Coast Section playoffs again.
“The goal is always initially (to make) NCS, and then take each game at a time from there,” he said
Russell said that recreating the 2025 season would be hard, but that each season has its own way.
“Losing nine seniors, they were all starters, was crucial to the success from last year, but every journey is going to be different,” Russell said. “It’s going to be on each individual on the team to maximize their own ability to try and promote more success in the future.”
The team is very young this year. Russell said there will be quite a few freshmen and sophomores that will receive lots of playing time.
“The one thing I’d always like my team to be is hardworking problem solvers. Hopefully we can fulfill that framework,” Russell said.
Returning players Henry Devan, Elias Reed-Miguel, and Roman Ahearn are this season’s captains, and are going to be essential to the team.
“(Besides Devan, Reed-Miguel, and Ahearn), it’s gonna be a lot of players in the frontline that are going to be crucial to scoring goals,” Russell said. “Robert Piniella, Russell Pan, Eli Dao Hoang, and Evan Yamanaka are going to be crucial to developing those goal scoring opportunities that lead us to success.”
Russell also said Miles Kim will make an immediate impact on the team with quality and tenacity.
Russell said he wants to create a problem solving culture.
“I don’t think there is going to be one strength of having a set style of play,” he said. “I think it’s going to be more us recognizing the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to overcome that.
“We are not just building for this year, we are building for seasons to come.”
Many of the players played club in the off season to keep improving their skills.
Russell said that league opponents such as Bishop O’Dowd, Berkeley, and Castro Valley are some of the traditional rivalries that the Highlanders are preparing for.
“It’s hard to say (where we place against them) right now, but we are in the right league, so all we can do is compete and make sure that we are giving 101 (percent effort) to make sure we come out on top,” Russell said.