Captain Costa: Dylan’s assessment of this year’s soccer season

Cresskill’s high school varsity soccer team had a great season this year. Captain Dylan Costa had an exceptional season scoring 12 goals and assisting 8. The team had an unfortunate loss in the quarter finals of states against Boonton, conceding a goal in the second half of overtime to end their season. This game doesn’t represent the full season with a winning record of 12-5.

Dylan Costa was one of the team’s best players. Many players including myself looked up to him. In an interview with Dylan on his season, he says he is, “happy that we had a good season but we kinda sold the bag [lost when we should’ve won], but overall still disappointed in the last game’s loss.” 

When asked about his opinion on his personal experience during the season, Dylan says, “I think I could’ve done better, could’ve played with more confidence. Still happy with the goals I’ve scored and what I contributed to the team but I still wish sometimes I put the ball in the back of the net.”

Dylan says that the thing that he most wanted to accomplish this year was beating Waldwick. He talks about how Waldwick has been beating us constantly over the years and the thing he wanted to do most was beat them in the finals.

One of Dylan’s greatest accomplishments this season was winning the North Jersey Soccer Player of the Week award. Not many players receive the opportunity to have a chance to be voted on for this award, and Dylan was a lucky candidate for the way he played that week. Dylan won with over 40% of the votes. He says, “I think my younger self wouldn’t expect me to win player of the week, but he definitely would have wanted this to happen. I feel great, as I had a great season attacking wise and I am really happy and proud that I was able to win this award.”

Being one of the players to have the honor of getting to play with Dylan, I can go on about all the things I enjoyed while being on and off the pitch; Dylan was a great player and an even greater friend. He’d always make sure I always have a way home, and he’d make sure our were heads up even after losses. He was always kind to me no matter what and would always try his best to make the team feel comfortable. Dylan thinks comfortability is a key component for a better team: “It’s definitely scary when you go on the field, even as a senior you might have butterflies while playing. I think everyone plays better when they’re comfortable.”

Something that Dylan and the other captains hoped to have more of was team bonding, he says “The team wasn’t really as connected as other years, not as much as team bonding as wanted. We had players who weren’t close at all. The other captains and I attempted to set up team bonding times but they always collapsed.”

Overall, Dylan is still joyous about the season, he and the team didn’t expect the season to end the way it did. His final statement is, “I enjoyed the team that we had, if we were able to prevent injuries we would’ve got much further.” The injuries were unfortunate but he thinks it also pushed us to play harder.