by Chase Porter
Staff Writer

The Coppell Cowboys guy’s varsity soccer team has started off their district games 4 and 1, and one of their most productive players thus far has been senior Collin Touhy.

Touhy, who has been a varsity player since the playoffs of his sophomore year, has played soccer since he was four years old. Since then, he has played on multiple club teams as well as the Coppell High School varsity team as a center midfielder.

“I’ve played all the positions except for goalie but I’d have to say my favorite position is outside midfielder because you get to play offense, defense and you can cross the ball in from the sides,” Touhy said.

Touhy has received significant playing time on varsity and he is seen as one of the team’s playmakers.  His speed and ability to handle the ball makes him perfect for playing mid-field so he can spread the field and pass cross the ball to his forwards.

“He has tremendous speed, technical ability and, most importantly, vision,” head coach Shane Bybee said. “He sees things developing on the field very quickly and is able to play the ball to the very best places.”

In 2010, Tuohy played mid-fielder, but this year Bybee made the decision to put Touhy around the ball as much as possible so that he can pass and feed players up field. The team has paired Touhy with Alex Broyles, a fellow senior and center mid-fielder, to try and maximize the ball movement through the middle of the field.

With the teams 4-4-2 set (four defense men, four midfielders and two forwards) Touhy and Broyles can get passed to from the defense and go on the attack through the mid-field by passing to their outside midfielders and each other. Coach Bybee rests most of the team’s success over the last few games and tournaments on this Touhy and Broyles match up.

On and off the field, Touhy’s teammates and coach see him as leader through example. His play on the field encourages his teammates to become better and his work rate is tremendous. He is constantly trying to become better and is relentless in his pursuit of quality possession of the ball while on the field.

“He’s really good,” junior Phillip Ellis said. “His ball handling is great and his ability to create space and find the open man is why he’s so good.”

Touhy injured his hamstring during the last district game against Southlake on February 11, but the mid-fielder should be able to recover and avoid missing any time. He will finish out his senior year trying to obtain the title of district champions and, hopefully, the title of state champions.

However, even though he has been recruited heavily, Touhy has decided not to play college soccer. The top recruiters for Touhy have been Stanford and SMU, but Touhy decided that he simply did not want to play college soccer. He just wants to enjoy college life without competitive soccer.

Touhy believes the team will compete very competitively the rest of this 2011 season. He is confident that the team will do well on their push towards the playoffs because of their win over Marcus during the Marcus tournament at the beginning of the season. Marcus, which was recently determined to be second in the nation, was a big confidence boost for the team and Touhy, which is ready to finish out the season and try and bring home a championship for his senior season and possibly the last games of competitive soccer.