Cheney senior brings out others’ strengths
CHENEY – Last year, the Cheney Blackhawks boys’ soccer team had the kind of regular season most teams only dream about. Cheney rolled to a 19-0 campaign, only to see the dream become a nightmare ending with a 1-0 shootout loss to Prosser in the state playoffs.
“Our whole team’s been bitter about it all year,” said senior forward Mitch Weller. “We’ve had a bitter taste in our mouth. We’re just stoked and ready to play this year. Although we’re missing some of our key guys from last year, this year we all have good attitudes and have been wanting to work hard and get back into the position we were in last year.”
To do so, Cheney will lean heavily on the talents of Weller, who has led the Blackhawks in scoring the past two seasons.
“I would characterize Mitch by his unselfishness, a common trend for great players,” said Blackhawks head coach Steve Davis. “He will sacrifice whatever it takes for his team. He was, I believe, the goal scoring leader of the Greater Spokane League his sophomore year and the Great Northern League goal scoring leader his junior year. Even though he was the goal scoring leader, if he gets the chance to pass to someone who’s in a better position than him, he’ll give it up because he knows that’s the best for his team.”
Weller, who has played varsity all four years at Cheney, fell in love with soccer the first time he dribbled a ball.
“I’ve always loved the game,” said Weller. “When I was younger, I used to go watch Cheney play. I was like, ‘I want to be like that guy.’ I watched Chad Thorpe play, I watched Caton Oyolokor’s (a senior at Cheney this year) brother play. I watched it on TV as much as I could.”
From his television viewing of the MLS and World Cup, Weller was able to forge his own identity as a player.
“I watch their creativity, their off the ball movements and their ball handling,” said Weller. “I see what they do, how quick and simple they do it, and they just make it look so easy. I aspire to have the ability to do what they do.”
Davis says Weller has built on his skills year after year. “As he’s got older, he continues to understand how to make every player around him stronger,” said Davis. “That’s the thing he’s kept increasing upon every year, and how to find the strength in every player and help them achieve a higher level of play.”
The Blackhawks lost a number of players in midfield and defense to graduation, but Weller is convinced the team will reload rather than rebuild this season in defending their GNL title.
“I just have to be a voice out there,” Weller said. “Having a lot more experience than some of the guys, I just have to let them know what they’re doing wrong and stay positive and be a team leader out on the field. We have a lot of good upperclassmen this year. We’ve all been trying to keep together and stay focused and remember how it was last year. We’re just trying to build on that.”
Weller, who plans to play soccer in college in the Spokane area after he graduates, is focused on taking the Blackhawks to the next level in the state playoffs in his final season.
“It’s going to be big this year because we’re not going to have a season like last year where we were winning games 8-0,” Weller said. “It’s going to be a lot closer this year. I just want to be positive and encouraging and make our team better.”
Davis said Weller does just that. “He makes the players around him stronger,” said Davis. “I think individually that’s one of the greatest things you can do in soccer, is to realize the talents you have around you. You find ways to make yourself stronger, along with them, by using their talents and finding ways to set them up and make them better players. He works hard to improve himself, and when he improves himself, he works to improve the other team members. He finds a way to increase the connectiveness between the players.”