Pahrump Valley High School boys soccer 2025 season

Pahrump Valley High School boys soccer head coach Andrew Norton is looking to lead the Trojans to the playoffs in his fifth year with the program.

After finishing the 2024 season 6-11-1 (2-9-1) and missing the playoffs, the program, according to Norton, aims to improve their style of ball control overall.

The program will be holding tryouts at the Pahrump Valley High School soccer field from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. In addition to attending both times, players must have a physical complete and “register my athlete” completed to be able to try out.

The Pahrump Valley Times caught up with coach Norton before tryouts begin.

Around how many returning seniors do you have this season? What roles will they be playing this year?

We won’t know until after tryouts, but potentially as many as 11 returning seniors this season. As far as potential leadership roles, that will be decided by the team and coaches after the first week of practices. I am looking forward to a strong veteran year, hopefully.

What are your favorite aspects about the game?

My favorite aspect of the game is teamwork. Oftentimes that’s the hardest thing to coach. Far harder than skills and endurance. But in those brief moments are those rare years that the team is cohesive, supportive, creative, and in sync. I don’t know that there is a better thing to be a part of. And in a sport as complex as soccer, with its number of players and different roles, personalities, egos, and strategies, it seems few and far between to get those moments, which makes them even sweeter.

How would you describe your strengths as a coach?

I would describe my strengths as a coach as being honest with my players and also holding my players to a higher level of personal accountability and self-managing of their game and the responsibility they have to their teammates. Probably one that shocks most of my players, I stress on fundamentals and basics that date back to their young years of playing that oftentimes have been forgotten or unpracticed for some time.

What is the main play style for the team?

What we are really looking for year-to-year is a style of control with coordinated precision strikes. We want to dictate the pace of the game. We want the majority of possession so that we are not sucked into being reactionary.

After finishing 6-11-1 last year, what are the biggest improvements that you are looking to fine tune?

The biggest improvements we are looking for this year is trust in the system. Many players seem to think they need to be that star, or be the one to carry more of the load, which causes 10 players to be thinking and working toward one goal and one player, though trying to make things better, actually hindering, and everything falls apart when they have possession of the ball. In essence, if one or two players are not on the same page, it’s basically like playing the other side one or two men down, and that’s tough. Outside of that, it’s trust in their team that we have to improve on. It’s personal accountability we have to work on. And as always, the basics.

How long have you been with the program?

This will be my fifth year overall I believe, but with a few years gap between being an assistant coach and being the head coach.

Contact Jacob Powers at jpowers@pvtimes.com. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.