St. Thomas Academy soccer playing a waiting game

Louis Holtz said his team is learning now that "it's all a process."

For as long as the senior captain can remember, his St. Thomas Academy soccer team has had a distinct personality — that of its star player in a given season.

"Every year, we've always had a go-to guy that really could put us on their back, and that's sort of been what defined us," Holtz said.

A year ago, it was all-state midfielder John Henry Neuberger, Holtz said. When the Cadets needed a big play, they waited for the talented senior to go to work.

Neuberger graduated last spring, and seven games into the 2014 season, the idea of waiting might be the best way to describe the Cadets. With a 3-3-1 record as of Sept. 10, they are waiting to find consistency in their overall play. With a healthy mix of seniors and underclassman, they're waiting to develop a personality as a group.

And, as co-captain Keegan Kennedy put it, they're simply waiting for their talent and potential to add up to sustained success.

"We don't have that guy this year, but it's not a bad thing," Kennedy said. "We have a lot of talent and a lot of good players, and it's all about coming together. Everyone's just learning how to step up and how to play when there isn't one player who can bail you out."

Yet, expectations haven't been lowered. The Cadets want titles.

"We want to win state," Kennedy said.

"We want to win our conference, too," Holtz added. "We just want to play as well as we can and improve as much as we can and see where that takes us."

Wherever that is, St. Thomas Academy will have to get there as one unit, Tangwe said. The Cadets can't try to do it on their own, looking for "wonder strikes," as Holtz put it; they have to play within their roles and step up as needed.

They've already seen what happens if they don't.

The team's other two losses — to Class 1A, Section 3 rivals Minneapolis Washburn and St. Paul Academy — have come in similar fashion. Both were winnable games, Kennedy said.

Holtz said the team is showing signs of turning an early corner, though. Fellow seniors Nathan Keller and Gabriel Rojas-Westall have had strong starts. Juniors Grant Dumler and Brendan Quinlan have stepped into big roles as well.

"It's just a process of putting it all together," Holtz said. "It seems like every game, we've had a different team showing up. It's there. I know it is. It's just going to be putting it together at the right time. I feel like it's really close."