Saving the season
Boys’ soccer team starts season with slow start but hasn’t lost spirit
Sophomore Fernando Gonzalez attempts to disrupt the opposing teams dribble during the game against Timber Creek High School on Friday, Jan. 19.
The boys’ soccer team started the season with a rough start accompanied by a district [0-4] record. Regardless of this fact, it has not entirely weakened their spirits. Practice begins every morning at 7:30 a.m. during the school week to get a fresh start with cardio and fitness training.
Due to the current record it is hard to keep morale high, but the team refuses to let its losing streak continue and strives to win its next home game tomorrow night against Byron Nelson at 7:30. The game was previously scheduled for today, but due to bad weather it was postponed.
“The goal is to make it to playoffs,” senior and team captain Josue Romo said. “I think we can do it with a slow start but once we win a game, the floodgates will open.”
Even with four losses, the players haven’t let this impact their work ethic; it has made them more focused in practice.
“There’s always a lot to work on because you can never reach your peak,” senior Ricardo Pierce said. “We just need to win a couple of games to get us going cause we have good team chemistry already; if we can have a repeat of last year we will do great.”
According to Romo, four of the strikers from last season graduated; as a result the players recognize they need to focus on scoring points and building stamina.
“All that we need to work on is getting our cardio up and making less mistakes in a game,” senior Manny Velazquez said. “Because any mistake on the team, not on the players individually, can cost us the win.”
Regardless of the competitive atmosphere of the sport, the team always seems to have fun winning or losing.
“The best part about being on the team is playing with friends,” Romo said. “We have been friends since freshman year, so we have this little family on the team.”
The team’s main goal is to outwork its opponents in the rest of its games.
“Whenever we get outworked by a team it just means they wanted the win more than us and I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Pierce said. “If we are going to lose, we are going out with a fight. Not because we didn’t want to win bad enough.
