Monday was the official start to the MHSAA 2018-2019 soccer season. Jones County teams began practice for the upcoming regular season with classic games starting in November. Here is a glance at the West Jones boys soccer team.
By the numbers…
Previous year record: 15-8-1
Previous year Region 5-5A record: 5-1
Number of seniors: 8
Games scheduled this season: 23
First scheduled game…
Saturday, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. vs. Ridgeland (Laurel Sportsplex)
First scheduled Region 5-5A game…
Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 5:30 p.m. vs. Wayne County (Wayne County High School)
What the head coach Josh Sullivan says:
“We had seven seniors and brought in three more juniors to go along with the juniors we have returning. We have a bunch of young kids and new faces to add to the program this year. We added 14 new players. Last year we graduated eight and lost a few more.
“We’re learning, and our older guys are doing a great job teaching the young kids. Our kids seem to be in high spirits, and they want to learn. Several of our players leave here as soon as practice is over with and find another patch of grass to knock it around at. They love the game of soccer that much.
“In the back, we have Carlos Aguilar. He’ll play anywhere on the field that I’ll ask him too. But he will anchor the defense for us as of now. Working our way up from the back is Chris Coston. He’ll play on the outside, but right now he’s dealing with some health issues. He’s got a checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. We hope everything is alright with him. He’s a key contributor for us.
“Rogelio Reynoso will play in the midfield. He played just about every minute of every game last year. He is solid. I know exactly what I’m getting out of him. Then we have Walker Thompson who’s at football right now. He is joining us when football is over with. Hopefully, we’ll get him in the early part of December.
‘Up top, we have Jacob Fulcher. He’s as steady as they come whenever he can get his mind wrapped around what he’s doing. Another senior is Luis Oliveras. He played key minutes for us last year, and we’re looking for great things out of him his year as he increases his minutes.
“Our junior class consist of Luis Ramirez, Kelton Keene, Reynaldo Navarro and Braxton Rustin that are returning. Luis and Kelton started with me since they were in the eighth grade. I rely on those guys a lot. Navarro is a guy that flew under our radar last year. I went back and watched a lot of films to get highlight clips, and most of them had him on it. He had a solid season last year, and he’s going to have another one this year too.
“We have a lot of older talent, but we’re not real deep this year.
“Our strength this year will be our defense. Benjamin Cooper, a freshman, and Aguilar will be strong for us in the backfield and with Keene at the defensive end position I think we’re going to be tough to get through there.
“Offensively, we can score. We have some flashy guys up top that can play solid soccer and create things when we need them too. You’ll look at our offense and say ‘wow how did they do that,’ but defense is what’s going to be our strength. We’re probably going to win a lot of games with scores of 1-0 or 2-1.”
