The month of December signals that the high school winter soccer campaign is upon us, bringing with it the usual excitement and anticipation of a new season.
The Greyhounds are no exception, as longtime coach Herbert Lemus returns to lead a young and talented boy’s squad eager to prove itself in the North Bay League Redwood Division.
The Hounds will field a good balance of veterans and underclassmen, beginning with seniors; midfielder-forward Sebastian Rodriguez, forward Azael Gonzalez and defender Jesus Perez. They’ll be joined by juniors; midfielder-forward Angel Manrique, midfielder-forward Edgar Campos and defenders Jose Reyes and Jair Valencia.
The list of underclassmen starts with gifted sophomore midfielder Edwin Vasquez. He’ll be complemented by returning sophomores; defender Jaime Ortiz and goalkeeper Alan Avalos.
New to the varsity team this season are senior Fernando Lara, sophomores Ricardo Gomez, Juan Pablo Patiño, Landon Evans and freshmen Jordan Valencia, Anthony Guzman and Damian Medrano.
The Hounds are coming off an abbreviated spring season where wins were hard to come by, but hope to return to their winning ways this winter.
“Our goal is to be competitive in pre-season and in league play,” Lemus said. “We are a Division 4 school, but we need to play higher division teams in order to schedule games for our JV team.”
Scheduling notes
The Hounds will kick off the pre-season schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 7 when they visit Windsor. Start times for the JV and varsity are 5 and 7 p.m. Healdsburg will host Maria Carrillo in the home opener on Saturday, Dec. 11. Match times for the JV and varsity are 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.
