Tobler Named Boys Soccer Coach of the Year

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

After a successful season, the Moapa Valley High School Boys Soccer team was recognized with honors within the team and from their league. With a first year head coach and an inexperienced program, the Pirates found a way to redirect the sails of Pirate soccer and it did not go unnoticed.

To begin, Coach Randy Tobler was named the All-Sunrise League Coach of the Year, an honor voted on by the fellow coaches in the division.

Tobler contributed the success to the players competing on the field, explaining, “It boils down to the team and how hard they work, their attitudes, and how they play together. We made some pretty big changes to the program and I feel like they really bought into that.”

Tobler then went into describing his philosophy and expectations going into his first gig as a head coach. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of success,” he said. “One of my biggest goals was to change the environment for more of a team feeling. I wanted it to be about soccer but for them to know there’s more to life than soccer.”

Tobler elaborated on his personal history with the sport as well, adding, “This sport taught me a lot and I wanted to create the environment where it can teach them about life too.”

Tobler explained his experience played a major role in his coaching. After a life of playing soccer at many different levels, he was able to learn what coaching method best suited his mentality. After applying it to his job with the Pirates, the team responded well.

What can assist a coach in finding early success more than anything, is players who learn quickly and help ease the process. Tobler found that in foreign exchange student Eirik Monsvoll and senior Bryan Robles, who were chosen to the All-Sunrise League team and All-Southern Region team, respectively.
“Eirik has a great attitude,” Tobler said. “He treats players as equals and no matter what he does, he does his best job. His background is in the midfield but he played defense because that’s what we needed. He kind of set that tone for teamwork.”

As for Robles, his intangible traits are just as evident as his athletic ones on the field. Tobler said he noticed this before practices had even started.
“You could tell in the offseason who the players looked to,” Tobler said. “We had a young team and when he was at practice, people followed him.”

In addition to Robles and Monsvoll’s league honors, the team voted on awards within the squad as well. Bryan was named MVP and Eirik claimed the award for Defensive Player of the Year. The Offensive Player of the Year was awarded to sophomore Sebastean Gutierrez.

Ethynn Fullman was recognized as a ‘team player’ and three athletes received the title of the team’s ‘workhorses’. These included Gabriel Hernandez, Fox Soderquist, and Rylan Tobler. The selection for Most Improved Player went to junior defenseman Bryton Westwood.

With an open-minded set of players, Tobler was able to achieve his goal as a first year coach and help set up an enjoyable experience on and off the field. The bond of his team was unique and their determination sent the Pirates in the right direction.

Moapa Valley was well represented with warranted honors from their league and from within. On the sidelines and on the field. The future is bright for Moapa Valley soccer.