This is a good team, one with a chance for a deep playoff run. As Joel Russell sees it, that’s the objective for 2024 Cathedral High School boys soccer. He said it’s an achievable goal for the Irish in his fifth season as head coach. “I like where we’re at,” Russell said in early September. The Irish, after finishing as the Class 3A state runners-up in 2023 at 17-5-2, were 3-2-1 in 2024 as of early September. After qualifying for the state title game in 2023 for the first time since 2010, they opened ’24 with a victory over St. Francis DeSales and a tie with Hamilton Southeastern before 2-1 losses to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers and Zionsville. They then beat Guerin Catholic 7-0 and Columbus North 2-1. “There are things we need to clean up,” Russell said. “If we can do that, we're going to be right where we want to be come playoff time. If we don't do that, we're not going to be. “If we're going to take that next step, then the expectation is to win the 3A state championship this year. Obviously, that's a big step. That being said, I think we've got some good senior leadership, and we've got some good experience in the right spots.” The ’24 Irish feature a strong core that includes senior attacker Calvin Kurzawa, who Russell called a state Player of the Year candidate and “the best forward in the state.” Senior goaltender Jett Wallmeier is a four-year starter with senior defender Gavin Bateman a three-to-four-year starter. Junior Quinn Bateman and longtime starter junior Jordan Wedges also figure to be key along with sophomores Michael Bonaccorsi and Karol Molina-Gomez. Russell, too, said the return to soccer of senior Sawyer Sheetz will be an added strength. “We've got some good talent in some key positions,” Russell said. “We're going to need to fill in some gaps. When you look at what we have, I really like that we can score goals quickly, and I like the fact that we can defend.” Rusell said the camaraderie of the ’24 Irish also bodes well for the team’s chances as the postseason approaches. “I do like the group,” he said. “We don't really have any knuckleheads. We don't have any cancer cultures. It's the team that hangs together outside of practice … that's kind of the mark that says ‘We're going to be good’ or not. There's a big group of guys that hang together. “They care for each other. I think it's going to show up on the field.” Kurzawa’s presence makes the Irish a dynamic team that can score quickly on the counterattack, Russell said – and he said building around that talent and experience will be the objective through the postseason. The idea, he said, will be to focus on the solid, fundamental play that enabled the Irish to peak late last season. “I like what we have,” he said. “The margin for error between talent of whatever team wins the state and whatever team loses is so slim that you just have to do the simple things well. You shut down giving up restart goals. You shut down counterattacks. You take away the mis-clearance, the bad head ball, those are the teams that are going to win. “It's the margin. We gave up pretty much a bad goal every game all season last year, then come playoff time, we started to clean it up. We needed to do that to make the run that we had. Right now, we’re trying to get the pieces figured out. “Once we get that figured out, it will be in time for playoffs. Then it's the question of, can we do the simple things well? And then, you know, a bit of magic here and there.” And while the Irish had multiple early losses, Russell said the program projects as one of multiple teams that can compete for the Class 3A state title. “I think going into the season, they had us in the [contending] group, and there's nothing that we haven't seen or nothing I've seen now that tells me we're not,” Russell said. “If you were a betting person there's probably five or six teams that you say, ‘I'll take those teams to get the field’ and you're probably going be okay. We need to make sure that we figure out who we want to be as a team and how we want to play, then just clean up the stuff and do what we need to do. “When we put it all together, who knows what we can do?”