BELLEVILLE — The Sugar River Raiders have won four consecutive Capitol Conference championship, dating back to 2018. The year before they finished second — just one point behind Wisconsin Heights-Barneveld.
With a 13-2-2 overall record in 2021 (and a perfect 8-0 league mark), the Raiders had yet another successful season.
“Our main goal this season, as always, is to compete in conference,” said head coach Bob Gentilli, now in his fourth season at the helm. “Creating the culture and family atmosphere amongst all players has always been our goal. We try to instill in our players the basic pillars that make successful student-athletes — respect, dedication to self and team and sportsmanship.”
Gentilli said this year’s team motto is simply “Together.”
“Our strength will be our team’s competitiveness within. We have many players who are excited to play, who believe in our system and who play together. They work hard, they are gentlemen on and off the field and they are all a pleasure to coach,” Gentilli said.
The Raiders graduated nine players from 2021, including conference player of the year Ryan Downing.
“Our graduating seniors were impressive on and off the field with their work ethic and all out athleticism. We need to be able to settle the ball effectively and move efficiently on the field. We also need to adjust to playing on a turf surface where the game changes dramatically,” Gentilli said. “We are at a disadvantage when we play on that kind of pitch.”
Returning for Sugar River is sophomore striker Aiden Hatleberg, who led the Capitol in scoring a year ago as a freshman with 18 goals.
“Hatleberg is one of the best players in the conference and will be one to watch this year,” said Gentilli.
Also back is senior Jack Douma, juniors Jack Leonard, Brady Mousseau, Brycen Teasdale and Ben Johnson, plus sophomores Breckyn Thompson and Clayton Streiff.
“We have several newcomers that we are excited about,” said Gentilli. “I need to wait and see how they develop this summer. The weight room will be crucial to these players. I expect all of them to be game-ready to make an impact on and off the field.”
Gentilli said the conference race appears pretty wide open this fall. Each team is well-coached, have different styles of attack and defense, experienced players, and focused mind sets.
“Our conference is very unique due to the fact that each team respects each other, plays hard but in the end, we all realize that it is a game played by gentlemen. If you look at the standings last year, the Dells and Lake Mills were only a game or two away from being conference champions and our games with these two teams were only decided by one goal,” Gentilli said.
