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New attitude: Busters look to grow into next step
Published 8/22/2008 in None : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com
Growth and maturation.
It's the way Garden City Community College men's soccer coach Stephen Gorton describes his program.
In it's four years of existence Gorton has been a part of it all, two as an assitant, and now entering his second as head coach. If anyone would be able to say how far the program has come, it would be Gorton.
"We've been 11 really good players that don't get along and were lazy, and now we're the total opposite," Gorton said. "Now, we're 22 players deep and everybody gets along, and everybody's competitive, and not lazy."
The season hasn't even started and Gorton talks as if he's on Cloud Nine. With a roster of 33 players, things are made easier for him. But that's just part of it. He gets more competition out of his players vying for spots, but what he notices more than anything is his players desire not only to be better on the field, but off it as well, especially in the classroom.
"We want the end product to be win, and we want to do all the things we haven't been very good at in the past," Gorton said. "We want to be big in the community, be at every class, shoot for 4.0 (grade point average) or 3.0s, shoot for whatever you can do. Just be disciplined off the field, be polite, be all those things. Work as hard as you can and see where that leads us."
Where the Broncbusters would ultimately like to land is in the national tournament, something Garden City hasn't done.
"Win regionals, go to nationals, win nationals," sophomore forward Steve Shaw said.
There was no hesitation to Shaw's expectations and teammates Mario Ojeda and Fedarico Argreda, flanking, Shaw were quick to agree.
"We have to first take it step by step, but our goal is to win nationals," Argreda said.
Lofty expectations, but for a team that has become close through its development in the early stage of practices, no one in the program would believe their expectations couldn't be reached.
"This year has been so awesome, so awesome," Gorton said. "You don't have to be a genius to know this team is going to win a lot of games. But, it's how are we going to be in October compared to now? Those are the things, we want to get better and better, see where it takes us. We're obviously not predicting anything spectatular, but we do have those high expectations of if we do the right things and if things fall into place we can see ourselves going to a national tournament or winning a regional."
When the program opened in 2005, the Busters were built by a strong contingent of players from Albuquerque, N.M. Shaw was a part of the group, but he left after his freshman season, then returned last year as a red-shirt. Gorton has since made a push to recruit within the Miami area, and the chance has paid off, Along with Ojeda and Argreda, who play forward along side Shaw, there are 12 Busters from Miami. Most of them know each other from playing on the same high school or club team in Florida.
"To have so many of my friends here, it feels more like being home now," Ojeda said. "The atmosphere is a lot better than it was last year. We're expecting a lot from everybody this year. This is the last year for Steve and I, and so we're trying to do the most we can do and open the doors for more people to come in."
The team's unity has shown through in just about every way possible before they have even taken the field for live competition. Shaw, who watched from the sideline, describes the difference between last year's team that finished 8-11 in one word.
"Commitment," Shaw said. "Everybody wants to win, last year it wasn't like that."
The one positive the Busters will be without this season is midfielder Tareq Al-Lugman. The Busters All-Jayhawk conference, all-region, conference newcomer of the year in 2007 will miss the season after he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament Monday.
"Obviously, he would help," Gorton said of Al-Lugman. "You can't replace a kid that was freshman of the year, an All-American. We're OK with the team we have without him, and we still want him to be a part of everything. It's a learning process for these guys to see a guy like Tareq go down. They're thinking he's unstoppable then this happens. It's not as bad for us as it is how bad we feel for him."
With Al-Lugman out, Gorton will untilize freshman D.J. Zuniga more than what he had expected. The plan had been for Zuniga, all-state performer last year at Liberal, to shadow Al-Lugman early. With the change, Gorton is excited to see what Zuniga, considered one of the top junior college signees in the nation, can do.
Zuniga and the Busters will give Gorton his first look at them in the competitive field Saturday at the Barton County tournament in Great Bend. Garden City will open against No. 4 ranked San Jacinto (Texas) College. The Busters will play Western Nebraska on Sunday at 1 p.m.
"They're so pumped up for Saturday," Gorton said of his team. "San Jacinto is No. 4 in the country. You don't have to ask them if they think they can win or not, because it's already expected for themselves."
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