BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
As the Edinburg Vela girls soccer program was trudging through a pair of losing seasons, one of coach Hugo Leal’s biggest challenges was keeping his players inspired.
Girls from Edinburg’s three existing schools converged at Vela in 2013 to start the new program, and the group of mostly sophomores was excited about the opportunity. But a 3-13 mark their first year and a 4-12 season in 2014 created plenty of disappointment and quiet bus rides back to campus.
Still, the SaberCats saw that they were improving. The girls were learning each other, learning their coach and learning how to play together. They ramped up their offseason training, confident that 2015 would be the season they would break through, and they were right.
Vela posted an 8-4 record in District 31-5A and claimed the first two playoff wins in school history this year, setting up a date with Sharyland Pioneer at 8 tonight at Cats Stadium in Edinburg.
“The first two years, I was very doubtful, and I would get down when we would lose,” senior midfielder Sommer Vanhook said. “In the summer, I just put all of that aside as I saw we were getting better, and I just worked really hard. I kept trying to push our team to do better. I’m seeing that it’s all paying off, and I’m glad I didn’t give up.”
Vanhook came to Vela after a season playing junior varsity at Edinburg North. Others, like senior Alannah Chavez, moved over from Edinburg High. They joined a coach in Leal who had spent the past two seasons coaching junior varsity at Edinburg Economedes and had never been a head coach before.
The players were eager to learn his system, but Leal said his teachings were vastly different from what the players had been taught before. He emphasized passing, possession and speed. Chavez said that she and the girls who came from Edinburg High were used to “playing just to play;” that practices were “more fun than determination and trying to win.”
Leal quickly installed new drills and workouts with an eye towards improvement.
“It took us some time to get with his program,” Chavez said. “The respect that we have for him has grown tremendously.”
Two years of varsity experience helped that sophomore core grow stronger, and Vanhook said the team made perhaps its biggest strides this past summer. At the recommendation of Leal, almost the entire varsity squad enrolled in indoor leagues and independent training programs, meeting at least weekly to continue developing their skills and chemistry.
“The first two years, we weren’t really clicking well,” Vanhook said. “But after we did all of the training in the summer, and offseason, and preseason, we really clicked.”
Sophomore Chery Chavez, Vela’s leading scorer, said Vela’s biggest improvement from 2014 is communication. Vanhook said going through two losing seasons turned the SaberCats into a sisterhood.
For Chery and Alannah, that’s literal. When Chery was making the jump from middle school to varsity play last season, her sister, Alannah, was there to help her transition, reminding her not to be afraid to miss open shots.
“Once you get to play with people for a certain amount of time, you get to start anticipating their thoughts,” Alannah said. “The bond that you have together when you play, it’s just growing stronger and stronger the more games that you play together.”
The development from year to year gave Vela confidence entering 2015. Leal said that making the playoffs was the goal “since Day 1 of this year.” Still, Alannah couldn’t help but be surprised by the magnitude of Vela’s turnaround.
“That was my goal, but if somebody would have told me you’re going to go to the playoffs, and you’re going to go all the way to Round 3, I probably wouldn’t have believed them,” she said.
For Leal, this run is no shock. He saw the eagerness to learn from Day 1 in 2013. He saw the conditioning and weight training that the SaberCats put in during the offseasons. He saw the talent start to compare more and more favorably with teams around the Valley. And he saw the maturity that comes from enduring two losing seasons before sparking a run in Year 3.
“The first year was kind of hard, but now those sophomores are seniors,” Leal said. “All of that work, and all of that process, is finally paying off for them.”