For Washington, the ultimate goal never changed. Realistic preseason aspirations of a state championship gave way to sporadic injuries at key positions over the course of the season, injuries that dampened hopes and made the road to the playoffs a rocky one.

In the face of adversity, the battle tested Pam Pack found itself in the quarterfinals of the Class 2-A state tournament, the furthest its gone in the Jim Kozuch era, lined up against a familiar opponent in undefeated First Flight, a team that delivered a rude awakening in the season opener in the form of a 5-2 defeat.

Kozuch’s midfield matched a far superior opponent and was able to create opportunities, but a brilliant late goal on a free kick cut the Pam Pack’s playoff run short. It wasn’t a matter of injury, overconfidence or even a case of the late-postseason jitters. It was simply a loss against a superior opponent.

Buried within the high expectations, ones that carried the team through the turmoil, is a coach proud of his team’s performance, a coach already planning for the future.

“We lost 10 seniors last year,” Kozuch said. “Losing that many and fielding a team that won over 18 games, we definitely exceeded what we were planning on doing. Of course, the ultimate goal is to win a state championship, but with the 1-4 start this year, if you said we would win 19-straight games and make it to the quarterfinals, I wouldn’t have agreed with you. I think our guys just really built a lot of chemistry. Overall, their effort was tremendous. I couldn’t have asked for any more this year.”

This offseason, Kozuch will have to find a way to replace five key seniors — Lupe Barrera, Jose Corona, Leo Brown, William Page and Sergio Higuera, whose 28 goals were the second most on the team. It’s a tough task on paper, but Kozuch has formulated a different approach to this offseason, while remaining confident in the new crop of talent coming from Ed Rodriguez’s jayvee team, which finished 13-2.

Players, especially the upperclassmen, are being encouraged to play soccer all year round to polish their skills for 2015. And after this summer’s successful inaugural 7-on-7 high school summer soccer league, one that Washington dominated, Kozuch is already preparing to field two teams.

Rebuilding, a theme that many volleyball coaches this spring have thrown around, is not on the Pam Pack’s mind.

‘Between jayvee and varsity, we’re going to have 17 juniors and seniors next year,” Kozuch said. “The way we’ve gotten better over the last two years was to play a lot more soccer in the offseason. We’re going to do everything we can to not skip a beat and be right back here next season. Our goal for next year is the same as it was this year — make the state championship or at least make it further than the quarters.”

On a broader scale, the recent success of the soccer team has been notable. The Pam Pack has yet to drop an Eastern Plains match, despite the conference’s improvement, and has lost just seven games in two years. Junior Kyle Hodges’ 40 goals broke the single-season school record and goalie William Tate, who also returns next season, posted a 1.6 goal-per-game stat line, a respectable one considering the defensive deficiencies against quality competition early in the season.

New and old faces will carry the Pam Pack in 2015, but the goal, as always, will endure.