By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
A total of 163 games.
By any measure, that’s a lot of soccer.
Sixty teams (32 boys and 28 girls) descend upon Brownsville Sports Park beginning today for the annual Brownsville ISD boys and girls soccer tournaments that will continue through Saturday. Between the two tournaments there are 163 scheduled matches — 98 for the girls and 65 for the boys. It’s bracket play all the way through for the boys in their tournament, while the girls have pool play the first two days and finish up with bracket play starting with the quarterfinals on Saturday.
It’s the 35th annual tournament for the boys and the 18th annual event for the girls. Both tournaments begin at 9 a.m. today.
The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons have won the past two BISD girls tournaments. Last year in the final, they defeated Lopez 2-1 on penalty kicks.
Los Fresnos coach Patricia K. Hernandez has some specific things in mind to look for from her team this week.
“First, I want us to go out and play as one team,” Hernandez said. “Secondly, we want to use the tournament to help us identify the areas that need improvement, make adjustments and fine-tune our game in time to face our District (32-6A) competition.
“As a team, we are going in with high expectations for this tournament and the season,” she added. “We know that our journey to the state tournament starts with the Brownsville Tournament, so our girls are excited to compete at a high level with other talented teams this week.”
Pace girls coach Jesus O. Villarreal has specific goals in mind as well for his squad.
“This tournament is very competitive and I am hoping to see how our girls react to different scenarios during the games, individually and collectively,” Villarreal said. “For example, if they score on us, how are the three lines going to react? Also, if we are winning, how are we going to handle the rest of the game? And how are the girls going to react individually?
“These are things that only a tournament such as the BISD can provide us (coaches) due to the fact that there are so many different (playing) styles and teams that we will face,” he added.
The BISD boys tournament actually had two champions last year as Porter won one bracket and Laredo United South won the other bracket. The title match on final day to determine an overall tournament champion was canceled, leaving the Cowboys and Panthers as champions of their respective brackets.
Porter, which went on to capture the Class 5A state title, defeated Harlingen South 3-1 in the Gold Bracket final last year, while United South triumphed over McAllen High 3-0 in the Navy Bracket final.
There will be competition in two brackets again this year for the boys with the bracket winners scheduled to square off at noon Saturday to determine an overall tournament champion.
Porter boys coach Jose Espitia said one week has passed since the season opened and his team continues to be a work in progress.
“I feel good about our team’s chances, but I don’t feel that we are at 100 percent (of our playing ability yet),” Espitia said. “We want to continue getting better and improve our finishing.
“We are hoping to improve during these tournament games to be at our full potential for our District (32-5A) opener (on Jan. 24 against Lopez).”
Of the three BISD tournament champions last year — the Los Fresnos girls and Porter and United South boys — all of them advanced to the regional tournament with the Cowboys going on to win state.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess