A wave of youth players and a core of returning starters has the Delmarva Christian soccer team thinking they can be a royal pain to their competition during the 2024 fall season.

“Our expectation is to compete in every game. Obviously, the goal is to win; that's why we play,” said Royals senior captain Kasey Bell. “We have a pretty good schedule – I would say we got some tough ones – but there are games that we can win. There's games that are going to be more of a challenge, but I think we should be able to be competitive in all of them.”

“There's just the level of work that went in, more so in the off-season, to adjust to a lot of the inconsistencies that happened last year,” said first-year head coach Luke Shiderly.

The boys are picking up what Shiderly is throwing down. Down 5-1 with just under 30 minutes to go in an Aug. 26 scrimmage against Woodbridge, Delmarva Christian rallied with varsity players back in the game to nearly tie the score. They ultimately fell 6-5.

“During the preseason, what our coach put us through, it helped us a lot,” senior Mauricio Chavez said. “Especially conditioning, skill-wise, practice-wise; through everything, he pushed us to get better.”

Though they lost to Woodbridge, a Ted Lasso-like approach is paying dividends.

“No one's ever rude, everyone is super supportive, and the team mentality is very infectious,” said senior James Blair. “It's also incredibly motivating.”

“It's just working as a team and knowing that we can trust anybody to be on the field, and it doesn't matter who's on the field,” senior Christian Worley said.

Two of the players who have earned lots of trust are Bell and sophomore Jay Parrish, who were named captains.

Shiderly said Bell is the team's bedrock in the back, anchoring the midfield. Parrish is the threat up front, scoring four against Woodbridge.

“Our striker, Jay Parrish, he's just a player,” Shiderly said. “He loves the game; he loves to play; he loves to work; he loves just everything about soccer. It shows by the way he just can dribble around people.”

Keeper Quinn Downs was relied on heavily in 2023, something he didn’t mind, but it did make him hungry for a few rematches.

“Salisbury School [Sept. 6 and Oct. 8] is always a good one,” Downs said. “We play one match against Gunston [Sept. 10] – that one's really big in our books. And, of course, we got Worcester Preparatory [Sept. 13 and Oct. 2], the big school.”

Delmarva Christian will welcomesa tough Milford squad to Georgetown at 4:15 p.m, Tuesday Sept. 3, to start the season.