Regina’s demanding practices, schedule yield consistent success

IOWA CITY - As soon as the coaches arrive at the Iowa City Regina boys' soccer practice, a switch flips.

The players get up from their perches on the large tires that sit near the edge of the field and head toward the center of the field. The shift from pre-practice goofing around to the seriousness of the hour and fifteen minutes they'll spend working is sharp. The coaches don't have to tell the players what they need to be doing.

No, they do it automatically, without hesitation. Coach Rick Larew has each day's practice schedule laid out on a sheet and keeps them with him at all times. The hours they spend together are broken up into 10-minute increments and are organized immaculately.

It shouldn't come as a shock then that with a win against No. 15 Williamsburg (11-5) in Saturday's Class 1A substate final at home at noon, the third-ranked Regals (12-5) will be headed to the state tournament for the 10th-straight time.

What's led to this dominance?

'We decided we needed to become more demanding of the kids,” Larew said. 'I always had, but we just changed that in terms of time, effort, attention to what we were doing. That's made a big difference.”

In-season lifting and more time spent on game film are two big tenants of what the coaches want to do. Larew is serious about conditioning and says he never wants to lose a game because his team isn't fit enough. Schoolwork is important as well.

The Regals often play up in class, too, and it's really not their mindset to focus on going undefeated throughout the season. They want to play the best teams because Larew believes it makes his team better.

He's also proud to point out a number of his former players have came back as assistant coaches. The program and the culture are strong. Regina has five boys' state soccer championships to its name - the last coming in 2014 - and finished fourth a year ago.

They're gunning for more this season.

'It's a tradition to have a team that either goes to state or wins state,” forward/midfielder Nick Pechous said. 'This team this year is something else. We've had a few games that haven't gone our way, but we always bounce back.”

Pechous leads Regals with 15 goals on the year. The junior is building on a sophomore campaign in which he had 18 goals.

Just two of Regina's four losses have come to 1A teams. They don't have any reason to think that won't continue for the rest of the postseason.

'With the way were going, we really should be able to call ourselves the best team at the end of the year,” Pechous said

l Comments: jordan.hansen@thegazette.com