The boys’ soccer season is under way, and the team is being revamped with several younger players after the loss of key seniors from last year such as center defender Cian Costello, midfielder Kushol Bhattacharjee and forward Samuel Breck. In turn, seniors are assuming new leadership positions.
On Dec. 1, the Falcons came from two goals down to tie the Los Gatos Wildcats 3-3, and the next day, the Falcons recovered from a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2 against the Gunderson Grizzlies.
If the Falcons are going to keep winning, they are counting on seniors like midfielder Connor Buss.
Buss was a big part of the team his junior year, playing almost the full length of every game and being a key component of the midfield. Because of his importance to the team, he was named co-captain along with senior defender Romteen Masoumi and junior forward Kevin Yu by coach Chris Stott.
Buss played for the Cupertino-based soccer club De Anza Force from 2005 until 2009, when he switched to Pacific Soccer Academy, a club in Los Gatos, for which he played until 2011.
The primary reason for the change was that he disliked the coach at De Anza Force. He and several teammates moved to PSA to seek a different coaching style but in his freshman year, Buss decided to stick to playing for SHS rather than a club.
But there were challenges. In Buss’ freshman year, he suffered a concussion after taking a shot to the side of his head from point blank. He received Post Concussion Syndrome for six months and wasn’t cleared to play soccer again until junior year.
When Buss rejoined the team last year, it didn’t go as well as the team had hoped and the team finished fourth place in the league. But though the team suffered tough losses last year, it did experience some incredible moments.
In fact, one of Buss’ cherished wins was from last season. He really wanted the outgoing seniors to have a memorable senior game and with the score tied at 0-0 against the Lynbrook Vikings, Costello scored the winning goal in the final three minutes. Buss was thrilled that the seniors could have that cherished ending.
“It was such a memorable moment because we had been fighting the whole game and we had chance after chance to score, but could never finish, and eventually he scored the game-winning goal, and the whole team was ecstatic,” Buss said.
This season, Buss is looking forward to instilling even more pride in Saratoga High’s athletic program.
“I think that other schools view most of our athletic programs as weak so when they hear they are playing Saratoga in soccer, they think it will be a walk in the park,” Buss said. “I would say that in addition to being driven to win every game, we are also battling for respect for our school's soccer team.”
With Buss recovered and in high spirits, the team is ready to approach its game against Prospect on Dec. 9 and at Harker on Dec. 10. Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon could not cover these matches in the print edition.