Doug Desmarteau hopes there is strength in numbers.
Desmarteau, entering his 19th year as head coach for Allen Community College’s men’s soccer program, is bringing in what he considers one of the deepest teams he’s fielded at Allen.
“We’re looking forward to getting on the field and seeing what we’ve got, and adjusting from there,” Desmarteau said. “We think we’ve got a deep team, but you never know.”
The Red Devil roster has 70 athletes, with multiple contenders vying for starting spots.
“We’ve got a lot of returnees who are looking to do a lot of good things,” he said. “And we’ve got a good freshman class coming in, which creates a lot of depth. We can go three, maybe four, deep at every position.”
The aim is to have multiple scoring threats to build on last year’s 8-5-4 squad that bowed out in the Region VI championship match in overtime against Neosho County.
The game was knotted at 1-1 until Neosho scored three times in the overtime sessions to end the Red Devils’ season.
Allen excelled last season, particularly early on, while riding the scoring of sophomore Patrick Alouidar, who racked up 15 goals — nearly half of the Red Devils’ total as a team.
“But the last few games of the season, opponents really marked him out, and it became hard for us to create chances,” Desmarteau said.
With Alouidar lost to graduation, the aim is for a balanced attack in 2024.
“We want goals to come from more places,” Desmarteau said. “You’ll always have somebody step up to be ‘the guy,’ but we also want four or five others who can score at any time.”
There are viable candidates aplenty.
Returning sophomore Musa Abdelgdir is one such potential team leader.
“He was a guy, who when he played and stayed consistent, could score a lot of goals quickly,” Desmarteau said. “Calum Murphy is another one I hope can get several goals this year.”
The midfield should be a team strength with several incoming freshmen challenging returnees like Josa Aboud.
Duties for the final line of defense — goalkeeper — will go to Dickson Phoon, who served as a backup in 2023, but made his presence known down the stretch last season.
