Lauris looks forward to teaching with Greensburg Salem boys soccer

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, August 21, 2017 | 10:21 PM

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As the Greensburg Salem boys soccer team takes the pitch this fall, the Golden Lions will place more emphasis on a team game under a new coach.

Sam Lauris, who takes over for John Lynch as coach, was the men's coach at Penn State-New Kensington the past two seasons.

Lauris, a 1993 Norwin graduate, played at St. Vincent before becoming boys soccer coach at Yough for the 1998 and '99 seasons. Lauris was Plum's boys coach from 2000-02 before returning to Yough for two seasons, 2003-04.

After his second stint at Yough, Lauris made the jump to the collegiate level to be a Seton Hill assistant women's soccer coach from 2004-11.

“I get to be able to teach again. Kids show up for training and are excited for training. I'm getting the opportunity to coach more and train instead of recruit, which interested me again,” Lauris said.

“For me, every day is a teaching day. If we aren't getting better everyday in training and trying to learn something, I don't think I'm doing my job quite right. That is why I returned back to high school. A lot of kids show up and want to learn.”

Greensburg Salem, which finished 9-7-2 overall and 7-3-2 in Section 1-AAA last season, will be led by senior midfielder Tyler Ramer.

The Golden Lions will look to replace Connor Jobe, an all-section selection now at Slippery Rock who scored a team-high 29 goals. Ramer finished second on the team with 22 goals.

Last season, the Golden Lions started 8-1-1 before finishing 1-6-1, including a 2-0 loss to Laurel Highlands in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.

“Tyler will get his goals this year, but we need to attack as a team and defend as a team. I think that will help us as a better well-rounded team,” Lauris said.

“I don't know if they changed what they needed to change and adapted to the other teams' strengths and weaknesses. I feel that is very important for us this year in order to have a strong finish and have a team going into the playoffs playing better than staying the course.”

The Golden Lions, who will have close to 18 players seeing time this season, will look to support Ramer with sophomore forward Joshua Klueber and freshman forward Wyatt Ramer, Tyler's brother.

Junior Ethan Turnbull will be a midfielder with Tyler Ramer.

Lauris will look to junior Jeremy Kappel and senior David Langton to support the backline, as junior Sage Parsley will be the goalkeeper.

“We just need to continue what we are doing now as a team because last season we fell apart as a team and didn't work as well together,” said Tyler Ramer, an all-section selection last season.

“We just need to stay together as a team.”

The Golden Lions, who will look to return to the WPIAL playoffs for a third straight year, again will navigate Section 1, headlined by Mars, the WPIAL runner-up, and Hampton.

“Going into camp, you have a lot of expectations and potential,” Lauris said.

“My big thing is that at the end of the year, I hope we aren't talking about potential; we are actually talking about fulfilling the goals that we set as individuals and as a team.”

The Golden Lions start their season at the Hempfield Tournament at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 2.

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Greensburg Salem