photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

The Lawrence varsity boys soccer team huddles before the match against Free State on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, at Free State High School.

Since Joe Comparato took over as head coach of the Lawrence boys soccer team in 2023, the Lions have slowly developed.

A few years later, Lawrence is 7-1 at the halfway point of the season. The Lions are winning games and, more importantly, have a culture the team believes will bring them deep into the postseason.

“The leaders of the team do well and boys listen and they buy in,” Comparato said. “We’ve got full buy-in from the squad, and so they work together, they support each other. That’s what has carried us through, that and sheer determination.”

The Lions were reliant upon freshmen and sophomores playing varsity three years ago. That talent was there, but the team needed time to learn how to win in the Sunflower League. Now, with years of experience playing in the conference under their belts, the Lions have built a winning team. Comparato credits the older leaders on the team who have built the culture.

“The amount of experience we all have — we have a lot of juniors who have played varsity three years. There’s a lot of seniors who have played varsity since their freshman years,” junior Jasper Piepergerdes said. “We’ve all been together for a while. We didn’t lose a lot of seniors last year, so it’s easier for the team to click.”

Having spent so much time together has created a bond that makes it easier to play hard for each other. The Lions want to see their team succeed, and they’re having fun playing together.

“It’s been the best,” Piepergerdes said. “It’s been the best year of high school soccer so far, and it’s only halfway over. It’s only up from here.”

The seven wins have come in a variety of ways. The Lions have orchestrated late comebacks, they’ve blown teams out and have held off late comeback attempts from opponents. No matter what, the team’s fight hasn’t wavered.

Piepergerdes, a captain, knows that it’s on him and his fellow captains to lead by example in those moments and to keep fighting until the end.

“It’s a lot on me to keep these guys going the whole year, especially the underclassmen,” Piepergerdes said. “A lot of what they do on the field is reflected on me. What I’m doing, they’re going to do. If I’m staying and working the entirety of the season, they will stay working.”

Part of that leadership comes through with the players’ focus on achieving team goals over individual goals. Senior striker Patrick Sandefur has 15 goals through eight games, and he’s only 10 goals away from a school record with another eight games left in the regular season.

Yet Comparato has no hesitation about Sandefur’s focus. While he knows Sandefur wants the record, Sandefur’s objectives remain strictly about getting the team to the regional round of the playoffs.

“He even realizes he’s only able to score because of the other guys,” Comparato said. “We create opportunities for him by performing on other parts of the pitch. I think that their mentality is in the right place. They work together as a team. They know it takes 11 to play.”

This isn’t the first time the Lions have started hot under Comparato. In fact, last season, the Lions started hot but fizzled after hitting a midseason rut.

But the Lions learned from those losses a season ago and believe they know how to avoid letting losses compound. With the culture the team has built, Comparato said he has no doubt that the Lions will avoid a similar situation this year.

“They recognize it, and they’ve already talked about it,” Comparato said of last year’s midseason skid. “They know. They’re mature enough to take the wins for the wins and the losses for the losses and move on, because the next game comes no matter what.”

The Lions still have a challenging road ahead of them with eight Sunflower League games left before the team can even begin to think about the postseason. But the Lions have managed to keep their focus on one game at a time, which Comparato believes has played a crucial role in the team’s 7-1 start. Even after starting with seven wins, the team has kept everyone’s attention on the next game.

“We have got two or three really tough games coming up, some top teams in the (Sunflower) League, then everyone else we match up pretty evenly with,” Comparato said. “If they can compartmentalize this stuff and they can’t let the wins get you overconfident, and you can’t let the losses bring you down. You have to stay even-keeled, and that’s something I think this team does.”