Cape Tech Boys Soccer Uses Season-Long Turnaround To Host Playoff Game

PLEASANT LAKE – In the middle of September, the prospects of the Cape Cod Tech boys soccer team qualifying for the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament seemed distant.

The Crusaders were 0-3-1. There was, of course, a ton of time left, but the team would have to rebound to get back to .500 and contend for the playoffs. Not only did Cape Tech do exactly that, they did it to such a degree that they ended up hosting a tournament game, finishing as the bracket’s No. 16 seed among 40 teams.

And they did it through a coaching change midseason, after Kelan Warren replaced Nick Conti as Cape Tech’s head coach in September. Warren, who played soccer at Nauset, had no prior coaching experience. Yet from Sept. 17 to Oct. 9, the Crusaders ripped off six straight wins — exactly the turnaround they needed following the inauspicious beginning. 

“He’s a great coach, honestly,” junior captain Rahvarion Smith said. “It was a change for the better.”

Warren made a “huge impact” on the Crusaders in realms like discipline and courage, according to Smith. The team made some positional changes — Smith went from midfield to striker, for example — and also started skill development and training.

“He really grabbed nothing and made it something,” Smith said.

That influence boosted Cape Tech to finish with a 9-6-2 record and get a home match in the first round of the tournament against No. 17 Community Academy of Science and Health (8-5-1) on Nov. 4. Community Academy of Science and Health, who wore jerseys reading “C.A.S.H.” across the front, won 2-0. The match ran a little out of control near the end and wrapped up after a minor scrum between the two sides.

“They were a very technically gifted team,” Warren said. “They were good on the ball. They were fast. They knew how to play the game.”

For Warren, his first experience coaching soccer was “awesome” and “super rewarding,” serving as an opportunity to stay competitive now that he’s not playing, he said. Warren was a member of Nauset’s state championship team in 2018 and received Cape and Islands League honors as a senior when the Warriors went undefeated in 2020. 

“Being able to be in this environment again of the state tournament and seeing a team that really wants it, it's refreshing,” Warren said. “It's really nice.”

Warren also said that — with the way the team bounced back this year — Cape Tech’s players were “capable way beyond” what they know.

“They took every day as a day to get better,” he said. “Practicing, playing, off the field, just their attitude — everything became a learning experience. And instead of just tuning it out and not listening, they started to listen. They started to take their lessons into real life, and I think it really helped with the success during the games and in practices, and also just in general.”