Cubs soccer poised for standout season

By  Jared Lankford Special to the Monett Monthly

Over the last 15 years, no team has won as many games at Monett as its soccer squad.

There are two main contributing factors to that success: first, the stability and leadership of head coach Cristobal Villa (211-123-1); and second, quality athletes giving their all for the program.

“We have a very tight culture here in Monett,” Villa said. “Many people don’t know this, but I have a very unique team every year. Most of my players have many duties besides playing soccer and are full-time students; they also have full-time jobs in the summer and a part-time job once school starts. These young men just don’t provide for themselves, but also for their families. They grow up too fast from boys to men, at least in their minds. 

“The type of work they do varies from construction, roofing, waiters, cooks and mowing yards. We are just glad we are here to convince them to have some fun and to play the game they love — not to mention also that most of our players, besides being friends, are family. We have four to five sets of cousins and brothers.”

This year, Monett returns six starters in Angel Hernandez, Israel Valdez, Josue Alberto, Santiago Bernal and Jose Garcia. Alex Patino returns at goalkeeper after missing last season due to injury.

“We have a good problem this year with many players showing they can play in the forward position,” Villa said. “Bernal is a returning player who scored over 37 goals last season for us, and we hope he helps to contribute wins to the team. Hernandez is another player that returns this year and played as a forward in districts, scoring six goals. He played defense most of the season last year, so it will be fun watching him this year in that position.”

Monett also has plenty of options in the midfield with IsraeI Valdez, Josue Alberto, Benjamin Hunephol, Jose Garcia, Carlos LazaIde, Fidel Valenciano, Manuel Barrientos, Fernando SaIas, and Grayson Gonzalez all making a case for playing time.

“Our defense is going to be for the most part all new players, starting with Jabier Alvarez, London Barter, Giovanni Mejia, Juan Guadarrama and Cooper Dierker,” Villa said. “This year, we have had more goalies than ever with Patino, Gabriel Barrientos, Tony Vizcaino, David Macino, and Jose Rueda.”

Monett will be a mix of experience and youth.

“The strength of our team this year is going to be experience, even though we have young players as freshmen in the starting lineup — they have experience,” Villa said. “They are hungry, and they want to make a change. 

“The area that we might need to improve, and this goes to most teams in the area, is our defense. Our defense is young, but we have trust in them. We have a good two weeks of practices to get them ready as much as possible. The identity we are looking to have this year is focus and discipline. Monett has had the history of having great strikers and speed with great defense the past few years, but we really believe that if we can stay focused and disciplined, we will do great things.”

Villa expects that focus and discipline to culminate in the Cubs competing for a district title.

“Our overall expectation this year is to compete every single game,” Villa said. “We have to learn from each game so we can execute and win a district championship. This is a second year we are adding a freshman team. We have a lot of kids come out wanting to play the beautiful game, and that just makes our program much stronger. We are looking for other schools with the same numbers, so we can give our kids more games to play.”

The Cubs’ season kicks off on Sept. 4 at Nixa, and the first home contest will be a marquee matchup, as Monett hosts Cassville in the first edition of this year’s FutBrawl.