Both Madisonville soccer teams participated in their first competitive action last week with preseason scrimmages. Both the men’s and women’s squads are slated to begin their regular seasons with matches against Huntsville Jan. 5.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted but, overall, the hustling was there and we were ready to play,” said men’s head coach Baltazar Reyes on the team’s first scrimmage against Crockett. “They were trying to do a little too much with the ball instead of playing easy. We tried to force a lot of passes. Overall, we played well.”

Reyes, who led the Mustangs to the state tournament in 2018, saw the team’s season cut short due to COVID-19 near the tail end of district play last year. Kourtney Johnson has assumed the role of women’s head coach after assisting Travis Rasbeary in the halted 2019-20 campaign.

The Lady Mustangs battled Bryan in their opening scrimmage last week.

“I thought (the scrimmage) was really good,” said Johnson. “We had some hiccups here and there, but those will be fixed with time and working more with each other. We’ve only been practicing for a couple weeks now and we are still trying to figure out what (positions) people will play.”

Johnson pointed to players such as Andrea Hinojosa, Kayla Basinger and Marianna Castaneda as players to watch for the Lady Mustangs in the 2020 season.

“We are a very young team,” said Johnson. “We only have about four seniors this year with a bunch of juniors and sophomores. It is exciting in terms of the future.”

The men’s team also features a large number of juniors, but Reyes highlighted senior goalie Jesus Zavala as a player to watch from a leadership perspective.

“(Zavala) is going to be a key asset to our season,” said Reyes. “Hs is a senior, so this is his last year. He is one player that will step and help the team tremendously.”

Both Reyes and Johnson are focused on getting off to a successful start to a season that will include tournaments, which cannot be said for all sports during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We just want to start off strong and try to win as many games as we can before district play,” said Reyes when asked about his overall expectations for the team. “Our goal is to win district, but we just need to be playing good soccer on both sides of the field, offensively and defensively.”

“We might struggle a little bit in district because there are other teams with a little more skill than us, but we’ll have a chance to play teams and fight for a spot in the playoffs,” said Johnson.

Because of their large district, the Madisonville soccer teams will only compete in three matches (not including tournament play) before they open district play in early February.