5 Sports Sit Down: Darrin Paul

FAIRMONT, W.Va (WDTV) - Fairmont Senior head boy’s soccer coach Darrin Paul joins this week’s 5 Sports’ Sit Down to chat about the success of Polar Bears’ soccer.

The identity of the team is more defense heavy than last year, “I would say we’re defensive minded, we return three starters on defense and so far we’ve only given u four goals this year I think our team takes pride in getting a shutout and we know if we keep teams you know off the scoresheet that we have a very good chance at winning, I think that we try to possess to so I think between those two, I think that’s pretty much what we’ve gravitated this year is more of a defensive minded, possession team,” said Paul.

Fairmont Senior soccer has seen a lot of success in recent years, it’s a tradition the current players aim to live up to, “I think the biggest thing is the guys who come before these guys set a standard and our seniors and our juniors were art of the 2019, 2020 state championship teams and so we definitely you know try to live up to that standard and we expect, which is a good thing to be at states and to compete for a state championship,” said Paul.

This is a team that Paul believes has state championship potential, “Oh absolutely, you now between Nate and Kaelen and Ro who are our captains, I think they’ve done a great job at leading and that’s been our goal since day one, these guys as freshman came in and said they wanted to win four state titles so they we’re not shy about setting the bar very high, you know we have to get there first but if we get there that would be four years in a row we’ve gotten to the state tournament and we know who the cream of the crop is in the state this year between Charleston Catholic, Point Pleasant, we have to play Byrd next week so we know those are four of the top teams in the state including ourselves, so I believe we have a team that can make it there and possibly win the state championship.”

Fairmont Senior nows who the top caliber teams are and now what they need to rely to be successful, “Our style will keep us in every game, wee are a defensive first mentality this year and you know like I said, keeping us in the game and maintaining that defensive pressure, being patient and you know possess I think gives us good opportunity to put us in a place that where we can have success and get opportunities to score and I think if our opportunities are sticking and we can get the goals first were very difficult to score once we can put that pressure on you knowing that we haven’t given up more than 4 goals this year, we have I think its 14 shutouts, I think the boys have done a very good job of having that mentality,” said Paul.

Confidence builds confidence for the Polar Bears, “Our goal has always been at Fairmont Senior, we use the first couple weeks and even the first month and a half to form our identity, get everybody comfortable, we’ve always said we want to play our best soccer in October, as soon as October turned we knew the games are gonna be more important, competition is gonna be tougher so our goal has always been lets start playing our best soccer in October and I think that were starting to do that,” said Paul.

Paul gives us his favorite part of coaching Fairmont Senior, “Honestly its seeing them grow you know the comradery, we try to make this a family atmosphere, we preach that we’re a band of brothers, we’re a fraternity, the biggest thing we try and do is bring the guys back from previous years to talk with the younger guys so they understand that this is the kind of environment that we want to have and culture we want to have”

“We’ve really tried to do is have that family environment where we have fun together, we work hard in practice and you know we try to alert those type of things during the season to really form those bonds and it’s fun to see those bonds grow you know my son’s a freshman this year and so I’m seeing him kind of grow into that culture of Fairmont Senior and its’ a really fun environment,” said Paul.

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