My City June 2021

team’s five goalkeepers. “Even though some players had been with us for less than ten days, we could see how strong our talent level is and that our system was already coming together.” Norris and Michael Sly, both goaltenders from Grand Blanc, are the lone local players. Norris plays for Division 1 Butler University while Sly begins his college career at Oak land in August. He posted shutouts in two of last year’s exhibition games. For his part, Norris measures coach es by how much he enjoys playing for them, how strongly they motivate him and their overall soccer IQ. Wagstaff checks all of those boxes and more. “Coach Wagstaff is obviously very astute, tactically, and very knowledge

“Few people realize the pressure the staff and players are under because obviously, this program is used to win ning,” Wagstaff says. “We would have liked to have played better at times, but you have to be realistic because every game in this league is hard. We’ ll take it, enjoy and move on.” The Bucks are certainly an organi zation accustomed to winning. Founded in 1995 by brothers Dan and Jim Duggan, the Bucks have racked up a league-record 268 wins, 14 division titles and four USL championships.The team has never experienced a losing season. In all, 92 Bucks have been drafted or signed by MLS teams since 1999. They are the only team in the world with at least one player drafted in every MLS SuperDraft since its inception.

Flint fine-tuned for its season-open er with a 1-0 shutout of the Michigan Stars, a National Independent Soccer Association team, in a scrimmage. “The game against the Stars was a great opportunity to see how we were developing during the previous ten days,” says Caleb Norris, another of the

able overall,” Norris says. “He’s great at adopting different strategies based on what our opponents are throwing at us. He is very approachable and makes it easy to enjoy playing for him. Coach Wagstaff is going to get the most out of you and all the players want to lay it all on the field for him.” p

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