Numbers Down, But Hard Work Aims To Pay Off For Redbirds Soccer
ALTON – Greg Nasello has a pretty simple game plan heading into the 2025 season.
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Outwork everybody.
Numbers may be down in the Alton High School boys soccer program, but the kids that Nasello has are motivated and athletic. And they’re putting in that work.
“We’re really fit right now,” Nasello said. “We’ve been running our butts off. Last Friday, we finished with three field shuttles and with a one-mile run around the cross-country course.”
The best thing about Friday’s gauntlet, according to the coach? There were no complaints from the team about the extra conditioning. They just put their heads down and did it.
The program peaked with 33 kids coming out during the summer workouts, according to Nasello.
“We’ve had a couple guys come and not come back, so you never know, but right now we have 31 consistently showing up, and currently two of them are hurt; that’s just how it is.”
“We’re trying to find out ways to keep kids involved,” he continued. “I don’t know why that’s the case that we don’t have [numbers], but it sure is frustrating, because you know there’s a lot of kids that play. But the problem is, not a lot of kids play at a high level anymore. With that sinkhole, Alton Parks and Rec stopped for a while, and not everyone wants to play club.”
So after graduating seven seniors, four of whom were captains: Dillan Cowan, Alex Tuetken, Gage Anderson, and Jack Lombardi, the Redbirds are just going to play the hand they’ve been dealt.
“It’s going to be tough to replace them, but we’ve got what we’ve got and we’re just going to make the best of what we have here,” Nasello said.
Cowan, Anderson, and another graduated senior, Chad Fournie, accounted for 19 of Alton’s 23 goals scored last season. Cowan led with an eight-goal campaign, followed by Fournie with six and Anderson with five.
Alton posted a record of 5-14-1 last year that included a 12-game winless drought, going a little over a month between wins. In 2024, Nasello’s first year back with the team, the Redbirds went 6-13.
Last season, the injury bug stuck around the Redbirds. Key contributors like Lombardi and Cowan were in and out of the lineup. Other players were day-to-day during that winless stretch.
But last year is in the rear-view mirror.
“I’d like this year to be a good transition year for these guys to make something happen, to shock some people, and I think we will,” Nasello said. “Because we’re that athletic, and if we get the ball in the right spots and we can do some of the things we’ve been working on, we’re going to be tough to play against, because we’re never going to quit.”
Alton practiced in the evening on Monday from about 6-8 p.m., ending with more conditioning. It marks just nine days until Alton kicks open the season, and the Redbirds are chomping at the bit.
“Fitness-wise, I think we’re ready now,” Nasello said. “I think by the end of the week, we’re going to get to the point where we want to play. It’s just no fun being here anymore. We want to play against somebody; we’re tired of playing against ourselves; we’re tired of hitting each other.”
Alton hosts seven other schools in their season-opening Redbird Tournament: Marion, Duchesne, Civic Memorial, Belleville West, Jacksonville, Marquette Catholic, and Parkway North.
They’ll be hosting the tournament in three locations: Glazebrook Park, West Elementary’s Public School Stadium, and the newly-turfed Piasa Motor Fuels Field, on the campus of Alton High School.
“It’s beautiful,” Nasello said of the upgrades. “We’ve got our locker room back there with a TV and an AC unit. The way the school district did this is just unbelievable. It’s gorgeous. It’s just a night and day difference right now, for them too. [The players] really like it because now they have a home, and that makes a difference.”
The schedule resembles last season’s. Non-conference games against a couple of Missouri schools: Parkway North and University City, as well as 12 grueling Southwestern Conference games against the usual suspects of Edwardsville, Collinsville, O’Fallon, and so on.
And the Redbirds will be heading into that schedule a bit young.
“The fact is that we’ve got a lot of guys that are going to have to carry this team for the next three years, and you’ve got to get them ready,” Nasello said. “It’s a little bit more development, but at the same point, we want to win, so it’s pushing these guys to get ready now.”
And there are still things to be ironed out.
“The hardest thing right now for us is figuring out a way to play that works best for what they can give us,” Nasello said. “Instead of me saying, ‘We’re going to play this way, and you develop into it,’ it’s more so, what can this group give us?”
Alton’s season begins on Wednesday, August 27, against Marion. That game will be played on the new turf at Piasa Motor Fuels Field under the lights with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
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