00:00Don Correo, boys head varsity coach, been with the program since 2002, and then became the head coach in 2020.
00:09Who was the best team St. Anthony's ever had, which led to you telling them about that 2008 team and
00:15that they wanted to be better than them.
00:17Tell us a little bit about what you told them the message was.
00:22Well, fortunately they listened, because I said in order to get to those heights, it would take a lot of
00:31hard work.
00:33That team in 2008 ended 20-0-1, but I told them that it's not about rankings.
00:39You know, that at the end of the day, this is one at a time, and if you aspire to
00:47achieve what they achieved,
00:49then you've just got to come to work every day and put the work in.
00:55And they've done that.
00:56That team was very gifted, but I will tell you that what has distinguished this team is the fact that
01:06as a staff,
01:08for myself and all my coaches, we look forward to coming to work every day because of their work ethic.
01:18They want to come to work every day.
01:22Everybody that made the team put in the work over the summer, and it shows in this season.
01:28Everybody works hard in practice.
01:29There's not a single guy that doesn't want to be here.
01:31They know they've earned the place, and they're happy to be on the team, whether they're on the bench,
01:35whether they're a starter, or whether they're injured.
01:37Everybody wants to be here, and that level of energy just transfers throughout the whole team.
01:42Since the first day of practice, the intensity has been the highest it's ever been when I was on this
01:47team.
01:47So I was on here since sophomore year, and there hasn't been practices as tense as this year.
01:52You could see a complete difference in how everyone wants to be here.
01:55Everyone doesn't feel like they need to.
01:57Everyone just comes and gives it 100% every single time.
01:59This year, what would you say or count some of the defining moments of the team this year?
02:04I would say beating Chaminade for the first time home.
02:09It was definitely for me, but for the team as well because I know me and some of the seniors,
02:14I'd never beat Chaminade here.
02:15This was my first time.
02:16So I think that really lit the fire in me, and I know a few other of my teammates seeing
02:22us, how happy we were, that built us up from there.
02:26It's a pretty special team you're on.
02:27What feels different this year to you?
02:28I feel like this year, the leadership role that me and my two fellow captains have taken has honestly just
02:36made the team come together way better.
02:39The chemistry's here, and honestly, I feel like we've led the team to be undefeated as we are, and I
02:44feel like it just brings the team together.
02:46I understand at halftime there's a bit of a dance tradition?
02:50Yeah, we've got some music going at halftime, regardless of what's going on.
02:55The idea, you know, we preach trying to encourage them to play freely.
03:01You know, our jobs are to listen.
03:04This is a player's game.
03:06It's not a coach's game.
03:08And we try to give our kids the flexibility and the opportunities to be themselves within our system.
03:19And, you know, just about all of them have grown up with us.
03:23And that's, you know, as a coach, it doesn't get better than that.
03:27Tell me a little bit about the halftime dances.
03:28The halftime dances came after our coach, DJ, actually mentioned to us, I forget which team, but our college football
03:38team did that.
03:40A coach had them do that at halftime.
03:42They were losing, and they went on to dance at halftime, ended up winning the game.
03:47It was one of the best games.
03:49So we try to bring that energy here, whether it's 0-0, whether it's 2-1, we're down, whether it's
03:548-0, we're up.
03:55We try to just make sure we all have energy in the games.
03:58Do you remember the first game you guys did that?
04:00First game we guys did that, if I had to say, it was probably St. John the Baptist when we
04:08played them here is when we first did that.
04:11The halftime dancing, you know, I think coaches and us, we're big on having fun.
04:15You know, soccer is supposed to be fun.
04:17Obviously, we come here to work, but fun is very important to keep the team engaged in what we do.
04:22So we do a little halftime dance here and there to keep the team, you know, ready to go, smiling,
04:26and keep us in good spirits.
04:29What's it going to take to finish the job, become league champions?
04:33Well, obviously, we've been doing extremely well so far, but the biggest thing is we can't let all this attention
04:39get to our heads.
04:39We've got to make sure that we stay humble and we know that, as our coach Rock says, we're not
04:45entitled to anything.
04:46And we have to keep that mentality going forward.
04:49What would it mean to finish the job?
04:51And, I mean, obviously, you've come a long way, but, you know, when you get into one bad game is
04:56one bad game and it's over.
04:57Yeah, I think just keeping our minds 100% straight, I think not taking a playoff, I mean, anything could
05:04happen.
05:05It could be a corner kick that leads to a goal and that's it, 1-0 and our season's over
05:09just from an undefeated record right in playoffs.
05:11But I think keeping our heads and, again, not taking a playoff, that's going to do it for us.
