Wahluke looks to continue building team cohesion after strong start

MATTAWA — Wahluke soccer has started their 2025 season 2-1 and Warriors Head Soccer Coach Cele Lopez expressed pride in the team that has been built so far. 

For Spring 2025, the team has added new faces to the roster and is working on building a new defense. On top of this Lopez has noticed a particularly strong bond that has been building among his players. 

“The friendship that the kids have, that really amazes me,” said Coach Lopez. “We don’t have a group of soccer players; we have a group of friends.” 

So far this season, the Warriors have won against Chelan (5-3), fell to University Prep (0-4), recovered with a win against Royal (3-1) and were set to play White Swan Thursday evening. Results of that game were not available by press time.

Most of his players had played soccer together prior to becoming a part of this team and those who are new are very quickly finding a place among the group. Creating these bonds is what is most important in these activities according to the coach. 

This sentiment is how they will be carrying themselves as the season goes on but are still focusing on homing in on the fundamentals for this young team and making sure they can build a strong defense. 

“I want to make this fun for the kids, but at the end of the day it's a competition and we’re aiming to win states,” he said. “That should be the ultimate goal, but if that does not necessarily work out, we can at least prepare these young guys for a future besides soccer.”  

Lopez uses his experience playing soccer growing up as a baseline for how he wants this team to operate and where they can find the most success. He said looking back on his own high school soccer career the moments he looks back on most fondly are the time he spent with the people on the team. 

“My first year that I played I won the state championship and I do remember that, it’s a good memory, but man I get more happy when I see my friends that I was part of on the team and when I see my coaches, when I see people that went up in support for that,” he said. 

Making this as enjoyable of an experience for all his players has become one of his main goals going into this season. He wants his team to come out of this with both a positive experience looking back on both soccer and school spirit. 

“I don’t know if it’s all the around in other districts, but man we’re losing that passion that school spirit,” he said. “School pride is going down and I’m really afraid of that especially in small communities where sometimes the school sport keeps the whole community together.” 

Team Roster 

Player                Jersey        Class 

John Prieto            1        Sophmore 

Leonardo Torres        2        Senior 

Jan Hernandez        3        Junior 

Hector Contreras        4        Freshman 

Alexander Adame        5        Junior 

Alex Acevedo            6        Senior 

Diego Perez            7        Senior 

Ethan Moreno        8        Freshman 

Christian Anaya        9        Junior 

Alvaro Rodriuez        10        Senior 

Baldrick Gomez        11        Sophomore 

Rafael Rodriguez        12        Junior 

Luis Corona            13        Senior 

Alan Arroyo            14        Junior 

Christopher Barajas Ortiz    15        Junior 

Icker Lopez            17        Sophomore 

Alonzo Saavedra        19        Senior 

Franco Perez            21        Sophomore 

Alexis Zamora        25        Senior