By: Kyle Moylan
ÿ8DALCEÿSoccer is fun. No one will confuse that with being silly or a joke when Tigana Dalce is around, though.
The new boys’ soccer coach for Allentown High School is very serious about the sport. For him, the fun is the joy of putting in a good day’s work and being able to see the results out on the field.
"I’ve coached some of these guys before in travel soccer, so they know me," Dalce said. "I’m going to teach them the same things I learned. I’m going to train them the same way I was trained."
Of course, Dalce played for the Haitian National team. He was a member of Mercer County Community College’s National Championship team. He played for American National University. He has been an assistant coach on the Haitian Under-17 National team and for Lawrenceville Prep and Princeton High School.
Dalce has coached the sport to both boys and girls.
"I don’t care who you are," Dalce said. "I want to coach you the game. This is serious business. All of the guys know that. They also know I’m going to treat everyone the same. I’ll treat them like professional players. I’ll train them like professional players. That’s the way I was trained. We’re all her the same mission. That’s the bottom line."
Dalce wanted to reward players for talent and performance, which will have him giving two freshmen key roles. Marck Maiorano will play up on the front line. Conner Darrell will be in goal.
Other players on the front line are Piero Mancini and Ryan Provost. The midfielders are Christopher Katzman, Brendan Smith and Alcides Cuintana. The defenders are Robert Quelsh, Austion Neuberger, Marc Payson, Mike Grabowski and Brendan Skeehan.
Other players that should play a key role on the team are Dean Search (forward), Joshua Howell (midfield), William Morris (midfield/forward),Tommy Kuzma (midfield), Jayson Ciely (midfield/forward) and Adam K. (goalie).
Allentown has scrimmaged twice coming into this week. It defeated Manchester, 2-1, and tied Hun, 1-1. Allentown was scheduled to scrimmage against Florence yesterday. The regular season will start with a game 3:45 p.m. at home on Friday.
"I don’t know why they made us start like that (against one of the perennial best teams in the CVC), but I don’t care," Dalce said. "We are going to play some futbol. It will be a good game. It’ll go both ways."
In scrimmages, Dalce was impressed by the way his team passed and controlled the ball. He just think the team needs to work on finishing the plays it starts.
"I’m happy with the passing," Dalce said. "We play the possession game very well. We just need to be aggressive in the box and work on finishing."
Dalce, of course, will be working hard on doing that. And he doesn’t seem like the type of coach that will walk away or be satisfied with a job until it’s finished.
"The mental and physical discipline with the players right now is pretty good," Dalce said. "We’re going to approach them one game at a time, but we’re not looking to just make the playoffs. We want to go far into theplayoffs."
And, remarkably, if the Allentown players work hard enough to pull off that great accomplishment, it will be a lot of fun.
