For many high school games, wins and losses often define the bottom line.

For Hiland High School soccer coach Scott Bodiker, the team’s recent 2-1 trip to play in the Bluffton University soccer series was a lot more geared toward getting a leg up on what he has to work with this season.

Any time you lose 10 seniors, nine of whom started for the better portion of the year, you’ve got a lot of unanswered questions heading into the next season.

While the cupboard is far from bare for Bodiker and the Hawks, he does have plenty of puzzle pieces to figure out, that will determine how each of the new talents will fit into the overall scheme of things.

“Obviously this time is very important to us for a number of reasons,” said Bodiker. “First of all, this is a valuable time for us in terms of conditioning, and just trying to get the kids into soccer shape, and this is a whole lot more fun than running laps.

“But more importantly, we have a lot of unanswered questions right now, and because we have a lot of kids who play multiple sports, it isn’t often that we get a chance to get everyone together in the off-season. Getting everyone in here and playing together to create a cohesive unit is pretty important. There is not a lot of varsity experience here, and these tournaments go a long way in determining who can play at this level. A lot of these kids are trying to prove that they deserve to be up here.”

Bodiker watched as his team opened up a 2-0 lead in the second half to a very talented and experienced Bethany, Ind. team, only to falter down the stretch and lose 3-2. After getting some rest, the team went to work the next morning, pounding Riverdale, Ohio 6-0, getting a pair of goals from Cameron Miller and Dylan Kaufman, and one each from Christian Joy and Cameron Stutzman. The third game saw the Hawks fall behind 2-1 with time winding down, before Caleb Miller knotted the score and then Cameron Miller headed in the game-winner on a corner kick from Joy.

A young team, coming out of the competition at 2-1, playing under sweltering conditions, was encouraging for Bodiker.

“No, the record doesn’t really matter, but we want to get to the point where we mentally know that we can compete and win,” said Bodiker of the good showing. “That first loss was a tough loss for us, but we rebounded well from it, and hopefully we learned from it. That was a good, quality team (Bethany).”

Even without two of its returning letter winners from last season, the Hawks proved that they could hang with a good club like Bluffton, which was physical and talented. Next up on the horizon is a six-game tournament at Alliance on July 23 and 24, in which the Hawks will be facing mostly Div. I competition like Wadsworth and GlenOak.

Again, Bodiker doesn’t really care about what kind of record evolves from the weekend, but will cherish the opportunity to evaluate and watch his younger players try to step up and perform.

“It’s a good learning experience for the kids to travel and play good competition,” said Bodiker. “It’s all about the process of getting ready for when it really does matter.”