Long Beach Poly coach Eric Leon has slowly built the Jackrabbits into a contender. His first season at Poly saw the boys’ soccer team go 4-10-4, a mark that improved to 14-8-2 last season. Still, the Jackrabbits found themselves on the outside looking in for the league championship hunt, finishing in fifth place and having to rely on an at-large bid for the postseason.
This year, Leon and his team are setting their sights higher.
“We want to exceed last year’s win total, we want to finish in the top three in league and compete for a title, and we want to host a playoff game,” said Leon.
The Jackrabbits return 14 varsity players including eight starters from last year’s team, including senior forward Jossmar Briseno, junior midfielder Miguel Arroyo, defender Julian Pearce, and sophomore forward Ethan Shnack.
Poly got a transfer from Millikan in junior defender Frankie Araiza and Leon likes his freshman center midfielder Luke Brown, who could help boost Poly’s offense.
The Jackrabbits are off to a 3-1-2 start this season and will open league play this week against Lakewood.
