Whenever he’s on the sideline coaching the Plymouth North boys’ soccer team, it’s always a home game for Scott Sorensen.
Plymouth is home for Sorensen. He grew up in town, played soccer at and graduated from Plymouth North, and is now a special education teacher at the school. So, it was appropriate that Sorensen reached a big career coaching milestone at Mario J. Romano Stadium on Sept. 29 with a 5-2 win over Plymouth South for his 100th victory.
“The games are played on the field, but just as important are the relationships I’ve formed with the kids I’ve coached at Marshfield and here at Plymouth North,” said Sorensen. “It’s amazing to have all of the great memories I’ve had with all my players over the years.”
Some of Sorensen’s favorite soccer memories start go all the way back to his childhood and some intense backyard battles with brothers Drew, Greg, Brian, and Matt.
“We all grew up playing with Plymouth Youth Soccer and never lost our love for the game. We had a big backyard, and I had four brothers all pretty close in age. That was the perfect recipe for some great soccer games,” said Sorensen.
As Sorensen was wrapping up his college soccer career at Plymouth State University, he realized he didn’t want his connection with the game to come to an end. That’s when the coaching door opened, starting in 2001 with the freshman team at Plymouth North. Later, he got his first head coaching job at Marshfield High, where he coached for a decade.
Sorensen is finishing his second year coaching the Blue Eagles. A late run got the team into the Division 1 state tournament last year. A similar run this season will leave North potentially just short of qualifying for the tournament.
Ranked 38th in the MIAA’s most recent Division 1 power rankings, the Blue Eagles were not going to work their way into the top 32 qualifiers at this late point of the season.
Everything came down to the final three games of the regular season, all of them at home, against Duxbury, Silver Lake, and then Bridgewater-Raynham. Starting the stretch with a record of 5-6-4, Plymouth North needed to find four points out of the three games.
Things went off the rails right from the start on Tuesday in a 5-2 loss to Duxbury. That created a scenario where Plymouth North needed to win both of its remaining games to secure a spot in the tournament. A 1-1 tie on Thursday with Silver Lake put the final nail in North’s playoff chances.
Plymouth North’s season ends Monday at home against B-R.
David Wolcott can be reached at dwolcott@plymouthindependent.org.