Clinton Dragons embrace 2024 as a rebuilding season
A new soccer season is here and underway for the Clinton High School boys team, and it will be a rebuilding campaign for the Dragons, who won the District 4-AA championship last year.
“We won the district last year, and who would’ve thought we would have done that?” said Gene Chunn, who recently opened his third season as the CHS head coach. “But that;s over now.
“We were lucky enough to get a 1-0 win against Kingston in the district championship game, and I think that was Clinton’s first district championship since 2001.”
The Dragons, who went 12-7-1 and were unbeaten (3-0-1) in district competition last year after getting off to a slow start, have had trouble finding the back of the net in their first two matches, against Rockwood and the Cougars.
Clinton (0-1-1) opened the new season last week. The Dragons played Rockwood to a 2-2 draw on Tuesday, March 5, and suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of Campbell County Thursday.
“We played pretty well, but we just couldn’t finish,” Chunn said after the Dragons drew against the Tigers.
This season, Clinton will look to improve as the campaign progresses.
“This is a rebuilding year, a rebuilding year in all capital letters,” Chunn said. “But I think we’ll be competitive. I think we’ll be competitive in pretty much all of our games, but we’re going to be a work in progress.
“Last year, we started 2-5.”
Clinton has four returning seniors from last year’s squad, including Christian Gutierrez (defender); Robino Rivera (defender); Will Targonski (a four-year player and three-year starter for the Dragons in the midfield) and Julio DeValle (forward).
The Dragons have 16 newcomers on the roster in 2024, including senior goalkeeper Parker Searly, a first-time soccer player, who was on Clinton’s football team.
“Hopefully, we’ll get better in every game,” Chunn said. “We have some strong players.
“We have some brand new forwards [who] will get better, and we have two sophomores playing on the back line, and eventually they’ll get better.”
District 4-AA has undergone a facelift in 2024 as Kingston has been reclassified and is now competing in Class A.
The Yellow Jackets, who were always competitive, have been replaced by Union County, which was in a rebuilding mode last year, but has had success on the pitch, and Gibbs, which has a new coach, but has always been a contender to make a deep postseason run.
Scott and Anderson County are the holdovers, along with the Dragons.
“I think Gibbs will be solid; they have a new coach,” Chunn said.
“Scott County is always competitive. I don’t know about Union County, but they were rebuilding last year.”
