Soccer has been an honored tradition at Sandy Spring Friends School since 1967. In the winter of 1995, after nearly three decades at the helm, Ari Preuss, the program's legendary founder and head coach, ceremoniously passed the technical directorship torch to Eduardo Alejandro Polón.
Pioneered by a reinvigorated standard, a four-year plan was set in place in the fall of 1996 to re-legitimize and re-intensify the boys varsity soccer program. Using a concentrated and fraternal developmental approach, the program aimed to compete annually for conference honors while preserving the traditions and intimacies of past eras. This grassroots endeavor has consequently helped serve as a flagship for heightening school spirit.
The 'Beests achieved their tangible goal on schedule in the fall of 1999 with their first ever PVAC Regular Season and Playoff Championships. This milestone brought with it the global soccer tradition of commemorating championships with stars crowning the program's crest, as captured in the top-left-hand corner of the website. The gold stars represent PVAC Regular Season Championships while the silver stars recognize the PVAC Tournament Championships.*
Meanwhile, a stronger top-to-bottom focus emerged. All of the feeder teams -- from the Upper School's Junior Varsity to the Middle School's 7th/8th and 6th grade squads, including the Lower School's 5th Grade team -- received increased support without sacrificing the inclusiveness that makes SSFS athletics so special. This task also reaped rewards when the newly-replenished 2000 varsity squad repeated as PVAC Champions. The unique SSFS experience was trumpeted in The Washington Post Sports' exclusive cover story on the 'Beests' program, Sport the Way It Was Meant to Be (Nov, '00).
In April of 2003, the SSFS Men's Soccer
website -- a truly impressive design project -- was launched. Then Captain David "DJ" Jones ('03) said, "This website is yet another pioneering effort forged by this flagship program intended to 1) unify the past with the present, and even the future -- players and parents, alumni and prospective participants alike, 2) preserve the rich history of this revered program by documenting its legacy in a kind of archive and 3) continue to elevate the standard of professionalism with which we've all proudly come to associate this noble endeavor.
2004 saw the program rewarded with still another PVAC Tournament Championship, while 2005 celebrated the program's second elusive conference double, a third pair of PVAC Regular Season and Playoff Championships, in perfect style -- undefeated (18-0-0). Yet another conference double in 2006 served as the coronation of an eight-year dynasty.
The SSFS Men's Soccer website underwent its first makeover in May of 2008. With the same quality of content and attention-to-detail, this new, modern, sleek, and attractive skin helped further elevate the site to the same level of preeminence as the storied program's rich tradition of excellence. Serendipitously, the fall of 2008 saw the program's reign close a ten-year circle by hoisting the PVAC Tournament banner, its ninth conference championship since the first in 1999.*
Today the men's varsity program continues to push itself to exemplary levels of athletic commitment, sportsmanship and character. Its members learn what it means to be Gentlemen-Warriors and live by the simplest, yet soundest of mottoes: Pride.
* SSFS MEN'S VARSITY SOCCER PVAC CHAMPIONSHIPS:
1999 League Banner & Tournament Plaque
2000 League Banner
2004 Tournament Plaque
2005 League & Tournament Banners
2006 League & Tournament Banners
2008 Tournament Banner
|
