Not every team creates friends, but some create family.

Kaleb Hoye is a junior at Fairmont High School and in his third season playing for the Fairmont Area Cardinals soccer team.

Hoye said he has been playing soccer as long as he has been allowed to. He said as long as he has played, he’s loved the game.

Hoye is the team’s lead forward and works to drive the offense as the captain on the attacking side of the field.

The team has 14 juniors on roster this season and Hoye said after playing with everyone for so long, it’s easy to see individual improvements.

“It’s great, I see everybody improve and keep getting better and I think that’s what we need,” Hoye said. “We’re not quite there, but we’re almost there. Through the years playing with each other, I can see it’s almost there.”

The Cardinals ended Hoye’s first season 5-12, then went winless (0-16-1) in his second. Hoye scored one of the two Cardinal goals last season.

This year the team has improved to 2-9-1 with five games left in the regular season.

Hoye has scored 10 goals this season and assisted two in the Cardinals’ offensive effort.

Hoye was named a team captain going into the 2018 season for the first time.

“I’m happy and I’m honored that my teammates looked at me as a leader,” Hoye said. “I’ve just been really trying to, along with the other captains (seniors Matthew Anderson and Joseph Gerken and junior Daniel Brummond), improve the team and our spirit and trying to fix things that we need to fix.”

A good way to stay together through tough times is to spend time together outside of games and practice.

Hoye said the way he likes to spend time away from soccer is hanging out with the other players on the team no matter what they’re doing.

“I play a lot of Xbox, mainly with the guys on the soccer team,” Hoye said. “We play Fifa and Fortnite and stuff like that. We go out and hang out and get stuff to eat together. We hang out a lot. Everybody gets along really well on the team. I don’t think there’s anybody who isn’t included. Everybody gets along and has fun.”

Hoye said the team is like a family and though last season and this season haven’t gone the way the team planned, he doesn’t think anyone would want to be anywhere else.

“This team, even though we didn’t have the best season last year and we aren’t having the best season this year, I don’t think anyone on our team would want to play for any other team,” Hoye said. “We’re more of a family than a team. We all get along, we all have fun, we hang out outside of soccer and we all love soccer. I think as soon as we can fix some pieces, that family is gonna come together and we will do some good things on the field.”

With the prospect of a team full of seniors next season, Hoye said he wants to focus on the remainder of the 2018 season. He said he thinks the group on the field now can still surprise some people come playoff time.

“I want to focus on this season first and give everything we can in this season because there’s still plenty of season left,” Hoye said. “I think we can still do some things this season, especially when the playoffs come around. But I think we’ll have a good year next year with all the seniors we’ll have.”