Though City’s opponents and their respective level of play vary from week-to-week, one thing remains constant for midfielder Paolo DelPiccolo – his motivation.
“Just winning,” said DelPiccolo. “When everyone on the team is motivated to win, it doesn’t matter who sees it or how we do it, we just all want to win and get to the top where we were last year.”
The Colorado native, named team captain before the 2017 season opener, has logged over 5,200 minutes since joining the club after a stint with the Charlotte Independence.
Manning the middle of the pitch, DelPiccolo credits the leadership of his teammates for the job done as captain of the defending USL champions.
“I think that we have a bunch of leaders and everyone knows their job, so my job is pretty easy as the captain,” said DelPiccolo. “I just really wear the armband and rely a lot on the other guys to do their job, which everyone does.”
While administering an attack that has seen forward Cameron Lancaster tally six goals in 2018 and assisting his backline to a USL-best eight goals conceded, DelPiccolo’s help comes from both sides of the pitch.
Some of the reliance DelPiccolo has on his teammates traces back to intense preseason training, where the club’s developed fitness becomes useful as the eight-month regular season carries on.
“We have good fitness around the team and it helps immensely because Coach [O’Connor] asks us to do a lot during the games and to do that much work for so many games in a row, preseason is a really important part of building that fitness,” said DelPiccolo.
Though the preseason fitness is advantageous, the club’s skipper doesn’t forget the culture of day-to-day grind implemented by Coach O’Connor.
“Coach’s biggest thing is coming to work here every day,” said 6-foot-1 DelPiccolo. “Training is hard here. It’s a real grind every day.”
