Windermere, West Orange boys soccer begin defense of region crowns

The 2024-25 high school boys soccer season has kicked off in West Orange and Southwest Orange, and two of the area’s top teams from last season — defending Class 7A, Region 2 champions Windermere High and 7A state runner-up West Orange High — meet on the pitch Nov. 18 for what could be a playoff preview. 

Although it may be hard to gauge just how good each of these two teams are this early in the season, this matchup, during which the Wolverines (5-0) topped the Warriors (1-1) by a score of 8-2, provides a valuable data point for the two teams and their coaches.

“One thing I’ve learned in my time coaching is not to take these early-season games as seriously as I would a January game,” Windermere coach Lou Romao said. “January is really when you should be hitting your peak, and focusing on improving is what we’re doing now. Obviously, we’re going to look at what we’re doing and what they can do. They’re going to do the same, and we’ll see where we stand at the moment. But again, we can’t take the result of this game tonight as seriously. Just look at last year; we beat them 6-1 in our first game, then 2-1 in our second matchup. West Orange, of course, got better as the season went on. They kept getting better and went all the way to states. Winning tonight does not necessarily mean you’re going to be better than them later in the season.”

West Orange coach Scott Fisher echoed Romao’s sentiments and doubled down on the philosophy of using a tough schedule to prepare your team for the postseason.

“If you come out and play a lot of really weak teams, the problems we may have as a team never show up,” Fisher said. “But when you play good teams, those issues are exposed and quickly become glaring, which then allows us as coaches to address them, and that’s all we are trying to take away from these early-season games against tough opponents. Both Lou and I know that nobody’s winning a championship in game two or game three or game four. Just look at last year; we were pretty bad at the beginning of the season. But seeing that early on allowed us to address a lot of things, and then we really started to peak at the right time. So again, nobody’s winning championships now, but it’s good to play these games so you can start to address the problems that you’re going to have later in the season. Right now, it’s all about iron sharpening iron.”

Season starting point

As both teams and their coaching staffs continue to use the early portion of the regular season to iron out the wrinkles of their respective approaches, with training camp, preseason and a few games under their belts, an early season identity has begun to form for each side. 

Fans of boys high school soccer in the area surely will be wondering what Romao’s and Fisher’s early impressions of their squads are and what the two coaches think fans should be on the lookout for in 24-25. 

For the Wolverines, Romao’s side will be a mixture of youth and experience, which should provide similar results: wins.

“The biggest difference with this year’s squad compared to last season is that our attackers are all young, but the defenders are all pretty much seniors, so we have a lot of leadership coming from the back line,” Romao said. “Despite the youth up top, I don’t feel like this team is behind where last year’s team was at this point. I think they’re just as good, and honestly, I think they could actually be better than last year, because we have more options in attack. We have very skilled players in the middle (who) can control the pace of the game and great finishers (who) can put the ball in the back of the net. I think that combination could end up being more dangerous, because … other teams (will) need to spread their focus on stopping multiple players, not just looking at one player.”

Fisher will focus on helping his West Orange side develop chemistry and solidifying a defensive line that lost three of four starters from last season.

“Last season’s team had played together for a year, so they had a base understanding of how they played and where we should play everyone,” he said. “This year, we have a lot of guys (who) haven’t played together, so developing that chemistry and finding the right combination of players is going to be big for us. Until we find that, it’s going to be like the first half of our last game against Timber Creek. It was bad soccer — all because our guys are still getting used to playing together. It’s going to take a little work for us to progress, for sure. But every time they come out here to play, and especially against quality competition, hopefully, they’ll get more and more used to playing with (one another).”

Both West Orange and Windermere will be off for the week of Thanksgiving before returning to the pitch in December. The Wolverines will be at Lake Mary High Monday, Dec. 2, and the Warriors will host rivals Ocoee High Tuesday, Dec. 3.