The UTRGV Men’s Soccer Team’s start to the season may be delayed a week, but that doesn’t mean the grind stops.
The Vaqueros were originally slated to start 2017 with the Houston Baptist University Invitational this past weekend, but Hurricane Harvey and the bad weather he brought with him quickly canceled those plans.
Now, UTRGV is set to open the season Friday night on their home field as part of the Rio Grande Valley Invitational, and Head Coach Paul Leese said his team is ready to officially kick off the new year.
“It’s always a long time coming; in the summer, you sit around with all these plans and preparation, so when preseason finally rolls around and the boys arrive, it’s great,” Leese said. “The energy levels are high and everyone is excited to play again.”
A year ago, the Vaqueros started clicking on the field in the middle of Western Athletic Conference play. Over their final five games of the regular season, UTRGV won three, had one draw and one loss. Putting together a string of solid performances last season, along with the new additions to this year’s squad, has Leese liking his team’s chances of showing improvement from their 6-10-3 record.
“I think there was fluidity, you could see it was around halfway point through the conference season where we started to learn how to play with each other,” he said. “We were a lot more familiar with our team shape and it showed with results. Our overall game intelligence was very strong; our overall familiarity of how we like to play was very strong last year. Now, the quicker we can get the new guys into that mentality, the better off we’ll be.”
Forward Jaakko Hietikko, a team captain, returns for his second year after starting eight games as a redshirt freshman a season ago. In 2016, Hietikko scored two goals on 19 shots with one assist, and while he is still getting into game condition after surgery, he is confident in what this team can do.
“I guess I’m the oldest player now, so it’s kind of my job to show some experience and maturity, just to be able to be calm and relaxed out there,” Hietikko said. “[Compared to] during this time last year, right now we’re in a better phase. Last year, we had some struggles with our tactics with the new guys, but this year, all the returning guys already know what we’re trying to do here and I think we have really good new players. I think we’re in better shape already than we were last year.”
Key returners to this year’s squad include junior forward/midfielder Isidro Martinez, sophomore midfielder Ilias Kosmidis and junior forward Isaiah Hines.
With the start of the season now just days away, Leese is confident in his returning players’ experience and leadership, which could translate to successfully transitioning the team’s 10 new additions to new roles.
“We have a lot of new players and we have to make sure they transition into new roles, we had one preseason game and that was really good to again let us know what we still need to work on,” Leese said. “So, here we are ready to compete for the first real game of the season, making sure they understand how we play and what we try and do.”
The Rio Grande Valley Invitational action is set for a 4 p.m. start with Houston Baptist University versus the University of Nebraska Omaha, while UTRGV takes on St. Bonaventure University at 7 p.m. for Friday Night Fútbol and an Orange Out to recognize September as Hunger Action Month—fans are encouraged to donate five canned food items at the box office. The Vaqueros will play their second game and Orange Out at 7 p.m. Sunday against UNO.
