After winning 8-0 Tuesday, Tucson High soccer coach Ismael Arce took his squad aside and delivered a message. It’s the same one he has preached since the end of last season.
“We have to show respect to our opponents,” Arce said. “We need to be humble and take it one game at a time. And because we are the state champs, everyone is going to try and beat us. We cannot get big-headed.
“That is probably the biggest mistake we could make.”
Tucson not only won the Division II state title last year but dominated nearly every game it played. The only blemishes to the Badgers’ undefeated season were three ties.
“I think that only happens once in your lifetime,” Arce said. “But I think we have a good chance to once again do a good job.”
So good that a couple of the players even said a legitimate goal is to repeat last year’s success, but with no ties. How they plan on doing that starts with familiarity.
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Returning core
It’s fairly rare for a defending champion to return a core group of players from the previous season.
Almost everyone is back, including reigning Arizona Daily Star Southern Arizona Player of the Year Julian Gaona, a junior forward. And Arce has been impressed with how his players have all improved over the past three years.
Last year “one thing that really worked was there was a sense of unity with the whole team,” Arce said. “I feel that is still here with this team.”
A majority of the Badgers don’t just play high school soccer together; they also play for the Tucson Soccer Academy.
“We know how to communicate well with one another and feel comfortable out there,” Gaona said. “It makes a huge difference.”
Experienced newcomer
One guy who wasn’t on the team last year but is expected to have a notable season is Willy Villaman.
The forward missed last season with eligibility issues, but the speedy goal-scorer doesn’t believe he has missed a step with the year off. Villaman also plays for Tucson Soccer Academy and played plenty of games with the majority of the guys who are his Tucson teammates.
Villaman agrees with some of his teammates, and believes this team is even better than last year’s.
“We’re real fast up front, more than anything,” he said. “But we’re deep at every position. No, I really have no concerns about this team.”
Remaining humble
Arce knows the Badgers could fall short of a repeat if they allow the success to get to their heads.
“We have a target on our backs,” Arce said. “Teams want to beat us more than anything. We can’t just show up and think we’re going to win.”
So he is consistently reminding his players to take the season one game at time. It appears to have sunk in so far.
“Because we are the defending champs, opponents are going to play up to our level,” Gaona said. “We got to forget about last season’s wins and start all over with the goal to win every game.”
