‘A roller coaster of a season’

QUINCY — The Quincy Jacks (6-8) fell to the Grandview Greyhounds 2-1 Tuesday in the 2A District 5 tournament, bringing an end to their season.  

“In my perspective, I feel like we dominated the game. We went up one zero pretty early, like almost within the first five minutes of the game,” Head Coach Hector Vaca said. “Credit to Grandview, a very respectable opponent. They are really good and it came down to basically one of my players getting a double yellow and having to play a man down for the last 20 minutes of the game, that's the thing that hurt us, and they were able to get two goals in.”  

A season to be proud of  

Vaca said he was proud of how his team played, despite the loss. He noted that the team felt the impact of recent events in the community.  

“I was just proud of them for their fight, even with everything that was going on and things that happened. It just kind of sucks that we went out the way we did,” he said.  

After a 1-4 start to their season, the Jacks earned a competitive overtime win over the Greyhounds earlier this season.  

The first half of that game went scoreless. The Jacks made the necessary adjustments in the second half, which helped them make a goal in the first 10 minutes, though Grandview responded minutes later with a goal to tie it up 1-1.  

Neither team could score before the second half ended, so it had to be decided in overtime. From there, the Jacks went on the attack, and Julian Valenzuela scored the game winner off an assist by Brayan Nunez.  

That win provided a much-needed spark to the team going forward, winning three of the next four games which improved them to 5-5 overall and a 4-1 record in the Central Washington Athletic Conference.  

“It was a roller coaster of a season,” said Vaca. “I feel like these guys just (showed) their competitive nature and their fight to just never give up. The boys will probably agree with this; everybody would categorize this as a pretty mediocre season, but just because we didn't get the results that we wanted, the fight was there, the passion, just some unfortunate circumstances that went on.” 

By the end of the regular season, the Jacks entered the district tournament with a 5-3 record in the CWAC, positioning them as the fourth seed. After losing in the first round to Toppenish 4-1, Grandview eliminated Quincy from the postseason.  

Despite the results of various games not going their way throughout the latter half of the season, the players never hung their heads. That’s something that’s ingrained in them from a young age and being raised in a community of fighters, he said.  

“We’re a pretty resilient community, very tight knit and full of people that are never willing to give up,” Vaca said.  

Growth in leadership 

Though they never lacked it, the Jacks saw a lot of growth in their leadership, Vaca said. With 11 seniors, their leadership qualities started to rub off on the younger players.  

“I noticed a lot of these underclassmen and some of the freshmen actually grew a lot in that aspect and maturity with the seniors,” he said. “My biggest thing was, yes, I'm their coach, to some I was their counselor – actually, to all of them, I was their counselor. More than anything, I was preparing these guys for life. That was the main thing that I would like them to take away.”  

One player that stood out to him as a leader was Maximo Serano.  

“As a person (and) as a player he grew so much. He came into the season not knowing if he was even going to play very much. He just came in with that (mindset) of he's got something to prove this year, especially being a senior. He was somebody that was a pillar in our lineup. He became probably one of the most important players on our team,” Vaca said.  

Though the Jacks will be very young next year, likely only having two seniors in Randy Garcia and Valenzuela, this senior group has been a benefit to the program, said the coach.  

“The impact they had, the attention that they brought to Quincy, that wasn't normal. There weren’t college coaches reaching out... these guys definitely paved the way. There are a couple guys going to college that we've already made some connections with, and they're keeping eye on some of the players for next year and the years coming up. They left the program in a better place than when they found it,” Vaca said.  

After a roller coaster season, he remains optimistic about what the future holds for the Jacks program.  

“I'm excited about the coming years. I think we're still going to be a pretty competitive team even next year with being so young. We have a promising future, for sure, with some of the classes coming up, I'm just really excited,” he said.  

    The Jacks’ Ken Morales (9) takes a shot on goal against the Grandview Greyhounds earlier this season.
  

    Ramiro Beltran (1) boots the ball back into play for the Quincy Jacks in an earlier season game.
  

    The Quincy Jacks’ Dominik Plascencia (14) leaps through traffic while pushing the ball up the field against Ephrata.
  

    Edwin Hernandez (7) battles with multiple Ephrata defenders for control of the ball during their game earlier this season.
  

    Dominik Plascencia (14) chases down the ball with an Othello defender on his heels.