A Blazing Season Ahead - Blue River's Trailblazers

MCC-Blue River men’s soccer team is looking to build on their Region 16 Championship success through recent and upcoming signings of very talented local and regional student-athletes. Highlighting the list of signings are two players that earned 2010 Examiner 1st Team Honors, Cody Braden of Blue Springs High School and Jeremy Sagastume of William Chrisman High School (pictured above).
In addition to being a 1st Team Selection, Cody Braden was named the 2010 Examiner Player of the Year, Class 3 All-Kansas City 1st Team and Class 3 All-State Honorable Mention. He had 7 goals and 11 assists for the Blue Springs Wildcats. This is the second time in three years Coach Owens has signed the Examiner’s POY. The last time was in 2008 (Yacine Hamchaoui of Van Horn HS). The article on Cody’s award can be accessed at http://www.examiner.net/archive/x1808782267/Blue-Springs-Cody-Braden-named-Examiner-s-Soccer-Player-of-the-Year.

Jeremy Sagastume’s 17 goals and 12 assists also earned him Middle 7 Offensive Player of the Year and Class 3 All-Kansas City Honorable Mention. Additional area commitments to the Trail Blazers program are: Beto Alvarez, Blue Springs South (2010 Examiner Honorable Mention), Justin Schaefer, Lee’s Summit (Class 3 All-Kansas City Honorable Mention) and goal keeper Austin Prindle, Ray-Pec.

Due to the Trail Blazers 2010 success, athletes from outside the metropolitan area are interested in attending MCC-Blue River. Coach Owens recently signed three high quality soccer players from Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, MO. They are: Tommy Lor (2010 Class 3 Central Region and All-District 9 1st Team), Dakota Shepard (2010 Class 3 All-District 9 1st Team) and Justin Biesnicks (2010 Class 3 All-District 9 Honorable Mention). Each player signed on the January 6th and is looking forward to challenging the local players for playing time in 2011. The coaching staff is immensely excited about the potential of next year’s recruiting class.

The 2010 team was Region16 Champions. What can next year’s team achieve? We’re optimistic!