More than three months after schools shut down, taking high school sports with them, Ryan McKnight wasn’t sure what to expect when his team for the New York/Pennsylvania Corporate Cup Soccer Showcase returned to practice.

McKnight, the Genesee Valley boys coach, held six practices for the New York boys squad, including tryouts, before the pandemic-forced shutdowns put the game on hold.

But three Sundays ago, after the Corporate Cup organizers secured a game date complying with state health regulations at Bradner Stadium (Sunday at 4 p.m., followed by the girls game), McKnight’s team met for the first time.

“The boys were suffering a little bit of physical fitness from being out of shape a little bit,” McKnight said, “but everybody seemed excited, everybody seemed engaged, just seemed excited to be back on the field. The coaches did too, it was just nice to be back on the soccer field.”

But McKnight hasn’t focused on fitness in the limited practice time, instead trusting the players to work into shape during the weeks leading up to the game.

“For us to go there and spend a majority of the practice on physical fitness, we don’t really do that because we only get them together once a week,” McKnight said. “It’s more about, because they come from different schools, just getting the boys familiar with each other and just getting them to play around each other and learning each other’s skillset, strengths and weaknesses. Each night, we stressed, ‘You’re going to have to spend some time throughout the week working on your physical fitness, spend some time running and things.’ And it would appear to me that most of them did.”

MCKNIGHT’S assistant coaches include Allegany-Limestone’s Jon Luce (a former Corporate Cup head coach), Cuba-Rushford’s Nick Perillo, Olean’s Jim Charles and Hinsdale’s Devin Kinney.

McKnight has some star power to work with, including six 2019 Big 30 All-Stars, led by Big 30 Player of the Year Bryant Talbot, an Allegany-Limestone graduate. Fillmore’s Levi Webb was also a fifth-team United Soccer Coaches All-New York selection, while Talbot and Randolph’s Kaleb Steward made the All-Western New York Small School team.

Having served on last year’s coaching staff, McKnight had a familiarity with many players, remarking on the depth this year’s group brings.

“In our area, the Cattaraugus, Allegany (County) area, we do our best to pick the best 22 kids that come to try out,” he said. “Not to say that the boys that aren’t picked aren’t good athletes or good soccer players, we kind of picked positionally.

“But the main strength of this team, I would say, we have a lot of utility players this year who could play pretty much anywhere on the field, and that’s kind of what we focused on, the kids’ overall ability to play the game. Just the way they see the field and kind of read each other, I’m pretty impressed with this year’s team. Not that we weren’t last year — last year we had a great team as well. But the kids, being that they come from different schools, they just seem to click pretty quickly with each other.”

MCKNIGHT credited the game’s co-founder and organizer Kris Linderman for doing an “amazing job” keeping up with state guidelines, including in practices.

“Athletes from their vehicle to the field had to wear masks and the coaches if you couldn’t be more than six feet apart, we had to keep their bags so many feet apart, they couldn’t share water bottles,” McKnight said, “they couldn’t exchange the pinneys they wore in practice … it was their pinney for the remainder of practice. We just couldn’t share certain items and things like that.

“(Kris) obviously wanted the game to go, so we certainly weren’t going to do something to jeopardize not being able to play.”

The squad had two players ruled out due to injury, and one alternate added to the game day roster.

AT GOALKEEPER, Keegan McKnight (Genesee Valley) is set to play the full game, if healthy, with Jack Conroy (Allegany-Limestone) unavailable.

Listed at midfield for the New York boys are Connor Bates (Allegany-Limestone), Bryce Butler (Ellicottville), Darec Funke (Cattaraugus-Little Valley/Salamanca), Caden Larabee (Cuba-Rushford), Max Linderman (Olean), Joe Magro (Olean), Ty Rosengren (Randolph), Jack Snyder (Ellicottville), Kaleb Steward (Randolph), Matt Weaver (Belfast), Tobias Webb (Fillmore) and Chandler Wirth (Cuba-Rushford).

Noah Steinbroner (Ellicottville) is on defense, with Bryson Rozler (Randolph) and Ethan Shields (Randolph) both playing center back and Ryley McKnight (Genesee Valley) playing sweeper.

Forwards include Damion Brown (Hinsdale), Bryant Talbot (Allegany-Limestone) and Levi Webb (Fillmore).

Mason Cool (Fillmore) will play on the win and Alex Wenke (Portville) will be a utility player.

“Like any game that I have coached, I like my kids to come out pretty quickly and just play aggressive, attack every ball,” McKnight said of his approach to the game. “That’s just what I hope for. I don’t typically like to see a team sit back and try to figure out the other team. I just like them to come out fast and make the other team adjust to us.”