Plenty of players ready to step up for Wahluke boys soccer team
Sophomore Tony Espindola kicks the ball out of bounds to halt a Cougar attack.
MATTAWA — Wahluke High soccer coach Arthur DeVictoria loses more than a dozen seniors from this year’s varsity, but he’s unconcerned about next year.
That’s because he has an equal number of juniors and other underclassmen ready to take their place.
“We had to develop a new system to take advantage of the players that we had in the program this year,” DiVictoria said.
Once again, Wahluke was among the top class 1A teams in state. The Warriors compiled a 12-4-2 season record and a 5-3 mark in the SCC East.
All losses were to SCAC teams in the regular and playoffs. The Warriors dropped their second playoff game to Highland, 3-1, starting the downfall with an own-goal.
“I believe the transition to a new system worked quite well,” DiVictoria said. “We will see if we continue this system with a different group of players, who will have different sets of skills next year.”
Wahluke had plethora of riches in the seniors this year. They included Captain Jose Garcia, Captain Brandon Anaya, Luis Sanchez, Elian Rivera, Jorge Mendoza, Juan Bravo, Eduardo Valdenea, Jorge Rincon, Sebastian Barajas, Alexis Fernandez, David Pineda and Mauricio Soto.
Valdenea is a significant loss. He accounted for 19 goals and seven assists in 17 games. Senior Jorge Rincon had four goals and 18 assists in 17 games.
Among the returning juniors will be Emmanuel Hidalgo, who had 18 goals and three assists in 16 games. Junior Ulysses Gonzalez had 49 saves and allowed 17 goals total, and he stopped three penalty kicks this season. Sophomore Tony Espindola scored six goals and had four assists in 14 games.
Hidalgo, Garcia and Rincon were chosen to the SCAC East all league First team. Gonzalez and Valdenea were chosen for the second team.
“We are quite fortunate that we had Alejandro Vazquez, Tony Espindola and Christian Barajas playing quite a few varsity minutes as sophomores this year. They will be able to contribute even more next year.”
DiVictoria had six other juniors on varsity. They were Nelvy Badillo, Erick Perez, Jose Cruz, Jose Alejo, Alonso Perez, and Josue Gatica.
“We are looking forward to next season with the quality of the players that we have returning,” DiVictoria said.