Cougars soccer aims high with senior leadership

WARDEN – The Warden Cougars girls soccer team is returning to the field for the fall season with aspirations to build off what they accomplished last season. 

“It was a good season, we didn’t make it to finals, but we played hard,” said head coach Barbara Landeros. “We had a lot of new girls coming from middle school, so we had a strong team. There was a lot of learning and fun experiences throughout the season.” 

The Cougars graduated three seniors from the soccer team during the offseason, and this year will have five seniors on the roster. One of those seniors on the team is Amaia Borrego, who is looking forward to having one last ride with both her fellow seniors and her younger teammates. 

Borrego said she has been playing with the team since she was in eighth grade and started alongside her sister, Vida Borrego, who was entering her freshman year. Growing up around Vida and her friends kept Amaia with the sport and has since made an impact on how she pushes forward, especially as a senior this year.  

“(I’m looking forward to) being able to teach the newer freshmen everything I got taught my freshman year and being able to set the team up for success this year and next year,” she said. 

The program has seen a few adjustments throughout her time there as she has had a few different coaches, with Landeros taking over the program last season. As an experienced player on the roster, Borrego said her goal this season is to act as a mentor to all the other players and teach them all she knows while also trying to push herself to new limits. 

“Just being able to trust in your teammates and just work (together) as a team and showing off our skills better,” said Borrego. 

Overall, she said she wants her and her teammates to be prepared for the more competitive teams. 

“We are a smaller school; it’s a lot harder for us,” said Borrego. “But being able to, as a team, be confident in ourselves enough to know we’ve got this and we’re not going to be stopped.” 

The coach said that some of the team goals as they train for the season is to push hard on conditioning, as that is the number one priority for soccer, and was something she learned from last year would be good to focus on. 

“It’s always our goal to be able to play both halves and have no injuries,” said Landeros. “But mostly being in shape to finish strong all season.” 

Along with constant conditioning, the team will also be incorporating and managing dribbling with the ball, she said. 

The roster for the Cougars is looking smaller this season, as only 13 players were present during early practices. However, Landeros said she expects this number to rise as the team approaches its first game of the season. The focus on conditioning would only increase if there were fewer players, since there would be fewer opportunities for substitutions. 

“I am looking for a lot of teaching the girls the skill of the sport and the knowledge of it too,” said the coach. “Not just in their legs and kicking the ball, but also knowing the rules and being prepared and ready for the season.” 

Borrego said that the team’s greatest strength as they head into the season is their ability to play into each player’s individuality. 

“We all have our own skills that we can use at certain times and (I enjoy) being able to show that to other teams as well as being able to use them as a team,” she said. 

    Two players from the Warden soccer team run side by side during their warmup jog around the field before practice. Coach Barbara Landeros said that strengthening their cardio through conditioning.
  

    One of the Warden soccer players participates in a conditioning exercise where the players run, stop and backtrack around cones. Coach Barbara Landeros said she wants her players prepared for anything and keeping them from getting injured.
  

    A player from the Warden soccer team works on an exercise where she cuts in between cones.
  

    Head coach Barbara Landeros, left, and senior player Amaia Borrego, right, assist a younger player with a training exercise during practice. Borrego said she wants to act as a mentor to the younger players on the team while also pushing herself to be the best athlete she can be.