A sickening, sinking feeling of shock and disbelief accompanied De Soto High’s boys soccer players as they trudged off their field for the final time this season.

De Soto finished its year with a first-round overtime exit from regionals, derailing the Wildcats’ visions of playoff grandeur.

But the mere fact that players were so upset says more about how far this program has progressed under De Soto’s fourth-year head coach Darren Erpelding than anything else.

This season, De Soto claimed its first ever Frontier League championship, going 12-1-1 in league play. The Wildcats (13-2-2) also finished with 13 regular-season victories, more than any other soccer team in school history.

“He cares about us more than any other coach has,” said De Soto goalkeeper Tyler Phongsavath. “He’s more than a coach to us. Our success has a lot to do with him.”

Erpelding said he knew he had a special group of guys on his hands this past summer, when his team lost a tough, 1-0, game against perennial state power Overland Park Aquinas at the Sunflower State Games in Topeka. That contest showed the Wildcats had talent. But Phongsavath said Erpelding’s guidance paved the way for this season’s favorable results.

“Mentally, he’s helped me out a bunch,” Phongsavath said. “Every time I played goalie, every time the ball would go in, I’d think it was the end of the world. Somehow, I don’t know how he did it, I changed that mind-set to where I’m just ready for the next ball.”

Phongsavath has traveled to both Brazil and the Netherlands for soccer thanks to Erpelding’s letters of recommendation. Now, he’s a Div. I college prospect, and Erpelding is still helping him in the search for the right school.

Good thing Erpelding was in the right place at the right time six years ago, or his soccer-coaching career might not even exist. The baseball player turned soccer coach hasn’t looked back. In fact, he said he actually enjoyed the subtleties of soccer more than other sports.

“In basketball and football, you get timeouts, and you can sub different players for different guys in certain situations,” Erpelding said. “In soccer, you really don’t get the opportunity to do that. You have to do a lot of preparation at practice. In that 10-minute halftime, you’ve got to be able to make adjustments in a short period of time.”

His adjustments seem to have made their mark.

“It was probably one of the best years I’ve ever had as a soccer player,” Phongsavath said. “I think if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have gone this far.”