Starting on Jan. 4 in Alvarado and Jan. 11 in Brenham, Varsity Boys Soccer participated in two tournaments before the upcoming district season.

“The whole team did really well,” coach Jesse Slattery said. “The chemistry is there, the team bonding is there, they’re all working as one.”

The team took first in their bracket with a score of 2-1 in the final game in Alvarado.

“One of our main goals this year was to get first in the tournament,” senior Leo Rodriguez said. “Overall we did pretty well in the tournament; the second tournament we didn’t do as well as we expected, but then again, you can’t expect to be perfect at everything.”

The team’s goalie, senior Andy Guzman, performed really well according to Slattery.

“Andy did a really good job,” Slattery said. “He saved a penalty kick for us in the final game against Bridgeport, that ended up helping us big time.”

Sophomore Sam Oladeji said that despite the team’s success in the first tournament, they did not achieve their goals in the Brenham Tournament.

“We made a couple mistakes,” Oladeji said. “We just have to learn from them.”

Senior Jonathan Gonzalez said he contributes the players’ management of their behavior to the team’s recent accomplishments.

“We have fun on and off the field, that’s what I like about this year,” he said. “We can joke around when it’s time to joke around and get serious when it’s time to get serious.”

Players that have been on varsity longer than others have seen the progression of the team firsthand.

“I had the opportunity to be on varsity my sophomore year and I would see JV play and some players from JV are now on varsity so throughout the past two years we progressed a lot,” Guzman said. “It has shown this year that what we have done is really good.”

The district season starts with a home game tonight against Midlothian at 7:30 p.m.

“This year they seem to have the drive, they want,” Slattery said. “One thing I really preach throughout the year is making sure they have heart, and these guys have it.”