East Kentwood senior Damir Sabanovic plays the ball as Reese Walli (5) of Forest Hills Central defends during the non-league showdown at Kentwood. (Greg Chrapek | Advance Newspapers)

By Greg Chrapek | Advance Newspapers 
on August 18, 2018 1:44 PM, updated August 20, 2018 5:27 AM

KENTWOOD – For some soccer teams, it’s called rebuilding. For other teams, it’s called next man up. When it comes to the East Kentwood boys soccer team, you can call it, next senior class up.

East Kentwood senior defender Suleiman Isack (14) goes airborne for a header as teammates Ben Cengic (5) and Damir Sabanovic (10) look on.(Greg Chrapek | Advance Newspapers)

Year after year, the East Kentwood soccer team graduates a talented senior class, and each year a new class of seniors step up and carry on the Falcons’ tradition of success.

Two years ago, the Class of 2017 led East Kentwood to the 2016 Division 1 state championship. Last year, East Kentwood’s senior class led the Falcons to the Division 1 state semifinals. OK Red Conference champions last fall, the Falcons dropped a 2-1 decision to the eventual state champion, Detroit Catholic Central, in the state semifinal match.

This year, a total of 15 seniors return, including five senior starters.

“I like this group a lot,” said East Kentwood coach John Conlon. “Some of these guys have played 60, 70 varsity games. I think the expectations are high that they are going to be a good team when the season matters at the end.”

While five returning starters is not a high number, the seniors returning have played significant minutes and improved during prior seasons in practice, going up against the previous year's seniors.

“Every year, we lose good players,” Conlon said. “It is what it is. We try to continually reload. We have guys who are hungry that sat the bench last year and are finally getting their chances to play, and hopefully they will take advantage of those chances.”

Seniors Giuseppe Calabrese, Damir Sabanovic, and Ben Cengic are three of Kentwood’s experienced veterans. The trio has started close to 50 varsity matches each during their careers.

East Kentwood senior Giuseppe Calabrese (9) makes a play on the ball against Forest Hills Central.(Greg Chrapek | Advance Newspapers)

Seniors Jaren Bea, Nico Bonazzi, Uriel Garcia, Suleiman Isack, Bawi Lian, and Jackson Strabel, along with Jotran Lara-Zepeda, also logged plenty of minutes and started matches for the Falcons last season.

“These are all guys that were key players last year,” Conlon said. “A couple of them came off the bench. It’s going to be a big year for those guys. We’ve got a good core returning that buy into what we believe and just want to get better every day.”

Like all winning programs, East Kentwood focuses on the process, and letting the wins and losses take care of themselves during the season.

“Our goal is to be good come October,” Conlon said. “We just focus on getting better. Their mentality is that we want to be playing our best soccer in October and November. That’s all we worry about. We don’t talk about state championships or anything like that. We just talk about playing our best when it matters.”

Along with the veterans returning, the Falcons have a promising group of younger players that will contribute, but need to earn their spurs.

“From a soccer standpoint, our midfield can keep the ball very well,” Conlon said. “We have a very dominant middle of the field and we are senior-laden. I think our maturity and experience is good. That’s non-soccer, but I think that’s easy to coach when you have guys that have been there before and this is their last hurrah. They are going to give you everything they have.”

As usual, the Falcons face a stacked non-conference schedule, along with the rigors of the OK Red Conference schedule. Among East Kentwood’s non-league foes are defending Division 2 state champion Holland, along with Portage Northern, Portage Central, Forest Hills Central, Plainwell, and South Christian.