The sound of their racing heart and rapid breathing rang in their ears as the warm sweat trickled down their face, and flashes of the countless days of practice rush through their mind. The endless hours spent dedicated to getting better, the team meetings in which they told each other it could be done, with the countless moments in which they soaked in the glory and the times when they learned from their mistakes. The green stadium grass settled beneath cleats that they dreamed of standing on, the ground they had worked so hard to reach. The way in which it brought the team to the district grounds as they faced their opponent off. The seconds ticking down each one bringing the game closer to the end, closer to determining where their effort would take them. It was on April 3 when the men’s soccer team reached the destination they had trained so hard for, as they faced Katy Tompkins at the district playoffs. It was a game that resulted in a 2-1 loss, but getting this far was a goal that could have only been accomplished through the hard work and dedication the team put forward.

Senior Jevaun Christie found his inspiration towards soccer from his uncle who was a soccer team coach for a team outside of school. Now, Christie plays the team’s varsity left wing position.

Each player had their own individual method toward preparation for the season, in Christie’s case it was through simply watching and learning.

“I prepared by watching professional soccer videos, and I tried applying it in the field, during off-season I continued to workout so that I could make it this far,” Christie said.

Senior Isaac Coeto describes the game to be a continuous back and forth between the teams.

“The game was an intense game, then they scored in the last thirty seconds and it was kinda like a bummer like ‘aw man how are we gonna come back from this?’, and during the second half we were doing good and it was going back and forth and then they got lucky with a shot,” Coeto said, “We were at 2-0 and personally my shoulders went down, then Jacob managed to get in a goal, and I honestly thought we had it but with eight minutes on the clock, they kept trying to get in but they couldn’t put in another goal, but by the end we just ended up losing because of time.”

Coeto is the varsity men’s soccer teams goalie, earning his varsity position his sophomore year. Finding out he had earned this position filled him with emotion.

“When I first got to varsity I was like, ‘man I’m scared’ because I was like ‘man these guys are big and I was small and scrawny’ and I don’t know but somehow I made it work,” Coeto said. To him, a career in soccer is all he can dream about ever since he was a small kid.

“I see it as a way for me to get better because I’m going to college, a way for me to focus on my college soccer career, I mean my high school career was great but now I have to leave that in the past and prepare to look forward to my college soccer career to train and get better. I want to get out of college and go professional and be the first in my family to actually go to college and do so something with my life that’d be great,” Coeto said.

Alvaro Mendieta has been playing soccer since he was ten years old after joining a soccer club. After playing soccer for a hobby, he earned his varsity position his sophomore year.

“I was part of a soccer team and it kept me playing, but my cousin, he was also a goalie and so that inspired me to follow in his steps,” Mendieta said.

Although to reach the playoffs the team made many general and personal changes, there was one thing that remained the same all season for Mendieta.

“Before the game, I always have a chocolate chip cookie with Chick-Fil-A, it became a personal tradition which makes me feel more comfortable and prepared before each game,” Mendieta said.

One of the essential things to have established in a team according to Mendieta is communication.

“Because if not all of us were on the same page someone needs to drop in pressure we need to work as a team, this will help us work on our flaws and overcome the obstacles,” Mendieta said.

To him, the overall outcome was a mode of motivation he believed benefited their potential success for the future.
“Getting second will help us getting hungrier to get first for next year as we must face new competition from new schools,” Mendieta said.

In Coeto’s opinion as a graduating senior: “I think it’s put a goal in these guys head that ‘oh we gotta go back’ because this year that was our mindset to go back and we did and to be honest I know they will go back, I have a good feeling they will go back,” Coeto said.

Attitude is something Mendieta feels could change the outcome of next years game.

“Some games I got mad and instead I should have stayed calm and told everyone we could push forward that’s something that could have changed how we performed,” Mendieta said.

Next year the team plans on fighting their way to the top with the advice of their senior players,
“The most essential thing in the game is to build chemistry and play simple,” Christie said.

Through his soccer career in high school, Coeto learned some valuable lessons that he hopes next years players keep in mind.

“For each loss you don’t have time to be sad about it you have to come back in the next game and focus on that game give everything you have to it,” Coeto said “If you lose, you lose, you have to bounce back don’t think about it like “oh we, we lost to them you gotta move forward and focus on the new game, focus on getting better. For each win you just gotta enjoy them, those bus rides back to school you gotta enjoy them because they’re great.”

Senior Isaac Coeto takes a moment to reflect on the game’s result.