Bromfield boys' soccer follows its 'recipe for success' from coaching legends

Bromfield has had the most consistently successful boys' soccer team in the state during fifth-year coach Alex Horne’s tenure, winning Division 4 state titles in 2018 and ’19 — there was no state tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19 — and then the Division 5 state title last season under the MIAA’s new statewide tournament format.

Horne has had one of the area’s best coaching mentors in local legend Tom Hill, who captured his ninth state title in 2017 before retiring as coach, but he also has used the tenets of another coaching all-timer to help prolong the Trojans’ latest golden era, drawing inspiration from famed UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden.

“John Wooden is a huge idol of mine and his recipe for success, he focuses on conditioning, which is something that you can control, so we always want to be the most conditioned team,” Horne said. “We focus on fundamentals, the basic techniques, and as long as we all have that mastered, we get to the teamwork level. I feel those three things, especially teamwork and the cohesiveness, are way more important than talent.”

Make no mistake, Bromfield (3-0-1, 2-0-1 Mid-Wach C) still has the talent to make another state title run this year, despite graduating Telegram & Gazette All-Star Ryan McNulty — who scored the overtime winner in the Division 5 state final — along with other key contributors to last year’s title team, such as Geraghty Vellante and Amlyl AitDowd.

“We look at every year as a new opportunity, right?” Horne said. “It’s a new set of kids, so we really start back at the ground level and build our way back up.”

Horne has a pair of key building blocks in senior captains Tucker Madison — a stud goalkeeper and one of the T&G’s six players who will make an impact in Central Mass. boys' soccer this season — and central midfielder Theo Bradley.

“Theo Bradley is the definition of a box-to-box player, where he’s such a force defensively but has a lot of offensive talents as well,” Horne said.

Despite losing a 20-goal scorer in McNulty, Bromfield’s attacking trio should also be one of the best in Central Mass., with two dynamic seniors on the flanks in Alex Myles, another captain, and Tafaro Vera, and sophomore Brendan Listzwan up top.

Myles and Listzwan were the team’s second- and third-leading scorers in 2021, and the youngster has shown a nose for goal after playing nearly every minute as a freshman.

“He’s a very technical player, and he has the best foot skills on the team, but that just complements his knowledge of the game,” Horne said. “He has extraordinary vision and game sense of knowing where to be and when to be there.”

Listzwan has scored in all four of Bromfield’s games so far, including multi-goal performances in the last three — wins over Tyngsborough, Fitchburg and Groton-Dunstable.

With 17 returning players, Horne is still figuring out exactly who will play where, especially on the back line, and navigating that process using a famous Wooden principle: “Seek players who will make the best team rather than the best players.”

“Every time you talk to them about how do you feel about playing this position, the response is always the same, whatever’s best for the team,” Horne said. “It’s unbelievable as a coach, because they’re all in it for the right reasons.”

While Wooden’s Pyramid of Success plays a big role in Bromfield’s value system, the example set by Hill also still drives the Trojans forward.

“Tom Hill’s got the old-school, disciplined mentality, and we joke about it, but Tom Hill’s foundation, those are big influences we put into our team, which is commitment, dedication and passion,” Horne said. “He believes all of those things big time, and he’s a walking example of it, and that’s a huge part of our program.”

Unbeaten through four games, the Trojans passed their first test against a Mid-Wach B opponent with a 4-0 victory over G-D, but still have several big games against larger schools on the horizon, including at home against Westborough on Friday night.

Bromfield plays on the road against another Mid-Wach A team, Algonquin, on Oct. 6, and then at Nashoba Regional of Mid-Wach B on Oct. 15.

“Like every other year, it’s about our team coming together and that cohesiveness and really playing our best when we need to,” Horne said.

—Contact Carl Setterlund at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Bromfield boys' soccer follows its 'recipe for success' from coaching legends