By STEVE CORNELIUS, CJ Sports Editor
Somerset — Over the past few years, the Somerset High School soccer team has garnered much success with the help of a stingy defense. A big part of the Jumpers’ excellent defense was the result of the strong play of Corey Mounce in the backfield.
Now, Union College men’s soccer coach Tyler Brock will get the services of Mounce’s outstanding defensive play. Recently, Mounce signed with Union College to take his soccer skills to the next level.
While Mounce will enter Union College as a freshman, he is no stranger to his new collegiate coach.
“Corey has played club soccer for me for about four years, so I have seen a lot of growth and development out of him over those four years,” Union College soccer coach Tyler Brock said. “He is a great kid and he is going to bring a lot of high moral standards when he comes to play. Corey is going to do things the right way and he is the type of athlete who you don’t have to ask twice for him to do something.”
“He is family oriented and he will be a good fit at Union College,” Brock added. “Corey will be coming in and getting good grades and doing things the right way. I foresee over the four years he will spend at Union College, I will never have a teacher call me up with a problem about him. He is going to do things the right way and that is what we want him to do. He is going to be that kind of role model type kid who we want at our school.”
Mounce’s long-standing relationship wit the Union skipper played a big role in his college decision.
“When I visited Union College, I thought it was a great campus and everything was within walking distance,” Mounce explained. “Plus, this was the fourth year playing club soccer for Coach Brock, so I thought ‘why not four more?’. I have been looked at by several coaches and I had made several other college visits, but I decided I was going to stick with Union College and Coach Brock.”
Coach Brock already has a good feel for what Mounce can do on a soccer field, and that knowledge of his incoming freshman will make the transition smoother of both of them.
“It will be a big jump for Corey to switch from high school to college, like it is with any kid,” Brock said. “But he has a great work ethic, he has good determination and he has got a good head on his shoulders. And with those types of things going for him, anything is possible for him.”
“When Corey played club for me, sometimes he played up front, sometimes plays back as an outside wing or sometimes he plays a center back,” Brock continued. “So, the nice thing about Corey is that he is versatile. We will work with him in about 40 training sessions before we even hit our first game. So, with that we will get a good idea of where we will play Corey.”
Somerset High School boys soccer coach Brian Blankenship praised Mounce’s great defensive play and his huge presence on the field while at Somerset.
“Corey was a joy to coach and he will do anything you ask him to do, and that is one aspect I liked about him,” Blankenship said. “It is hard to get players to believe that defense is extremely important. A former goal keeper myself, I have always believed in defense and Corey was pivotal for us to having such successful seasons over the past few years. Corey is very gifted offensively as well, but for us to be successful as a team, Corey needed to know that he was our best defensive player we had. So, it was vital he was back there and cognitive of what he was suppose to do. Without him back there, I really don’t know what would have happened the last few years.”
“He organizes the defense so well and, on the field, he talks a lot which is vital for any sweeper,” Blankenship said. “He always put people where they needed to be to make the team successful. He worked well with our keeper, Ben Blevins, because Corey was the last line of defense before the ball got to Ben. I never had to worry about the sweeper position, which allowed me to concentrate on other parts of the field. We would always talk at halftime and we would talk about things we might need to change and he would implement them in the second half, and things always seemed to work out.”
Mounce looked back with pride in his four years spent at Somerset High School.
“Getting the chance to play in the regional finals this past fall was a great experience, although I hated how it ended,” Mounce said. “Overall, my years here at Somerset High School have been great. I have had several experiences, like having a coach I have been used to in Steve Wallace, who coaches me all through middle school and my first year in high school. Then, I had to start fresh with Coach Blankenship to finish out my high school career.”
