The GlenOak High School boys soccer team enters the upcoming season in a position they have not been in for more than 30 years: defending outright Federal League champions. Last season was an incredibly successful debut for head coach Damien Marchione and the Golden Eagles are hoping to keep that success rolling into this year.
The road may prove to be more challenging. GlenOak lost 16 seniors to graduation. That includes All-Ohio goalkeeper Nico Codispoti. The absence of Codispoti has been felt early.
“We did not have a direct replacement for him,” Marchione said. “DaMarko Jordan has stepped up to fill that spot. He has not played the position before but he is a really good athlete.”
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The injury bug has also struck. Starters Ethan Gupta and Eli Smith were hurt early after practices began.
“Ethan is going to end up missing a month with a sprain,” Marchione said. “He has unfortunately been on crutches at practice. Eli Smith, our center forward, has a stress fracture in his foot. Those guys might miss three or four games at the start of the year.”
The news isn’t all bad. GlenOak is still a team with plenty of talent that should be in the mix for a Federal League title. It starts with returning dynamic scorer Enzo Gliatta. Gliatta was the top scorer a year ago as a sophomore for GlenOak.
“He returns as a junior and he put up big numbers for us last year,” Marchione said. “We’re probably going to be asking more out of him this year.”
The defense will also be a strength. Ian Meyer and Bryce Burton are back.
“Ian should be one of the best interior midfielders in the area,” Marchione said. “Bryce is back at right outside back. He started every game for us last year.”
GlenOak will also get a boost with the return of Karson Frame. Frame missed the entire 2025 season due to an injury.
“He tore his ACL last year and was unable to play,” Marchione said. “He’s back and we think he is going to be an impact player for us this year. He would have been last year had he been healthy.”
GlenOak has a large junior class. The team is also experienced playing together.
“The junior class really makes the team tick this year,” Marchione said. “These kids have a lot of experience playing together. They have played together at the club level for a long time and they have good chemistry. I coached a lot of them at the club level so we are all familiar with each other.”
GlenOak is hoping to stay in the mix as it chases another Federal League title.
“Defending a title is a different challenge than winning one,” Marchione said. “We’re hoping to continue to step up as a program. Hoover and Jackson are always near the top of the standings. We’d like to get to a point where we are one of the top couple teams in the mix each year for the Federal League title. That’s the next step. It’s not easy in the Federal League to stay on top.”
“… I think we are going to get better with each game. We have some new players in the lineup but we think they can step up.
GlenOak also beefed up its schedule to help prepare for the postseason. St. Ignatius and Hudson have been added to the regular-season schedule.
“We dropped a couple games against Division III and IV opponents that we likely would have been favored to win,” Marchione said. “I felt like it was important for us to test ourselves.”
Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com
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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Challenges await GlenOak boys soccer in Federal League title defense
Reporting by Cliff Hickman, Canton Repository / The Repository
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By Cliff Hickman, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
