The Tonasket 2010 boys’ soccer team are: Brayson Hires, Wyatt O’Brien, Zach Villava, Joel Cosino, Matilde Pacheco, Jesus Alvarez, Oscar Avilez, Irving Morales, Lazaro Ortega, Tyler Farley, Adrian Ramos, John Pantaleon, Matt Gschiel, Derek Tucker, Jose

TONASKET – With a team of mostly freshman, the Tonasket boys’ soccer team is working to be competitive this season.

In his third year as head coach, Chris Field, assisted by Todd Mathews, said the team has an average turnout this year of 18 players but they are a very young team. There are eight freshmen, four sophomores, four juniors and one senior, though he is not a returning player.

Field said sophomore Adrian Ramos, junior Mathew Gschiel, sophomore Tyler Farley and sophomore Lazaro Ortega each did exceptionally well last season.

“Ramos is an exceptional defensive player with a great awareness on the field,” he added. “Gschiel has developed over the last two seasons and is now a good defenseman. Farley can play any position on the field and shows good leadership. Ortega was our second string goalie last year and now is our started and he has great instincts.”

Field said the team has a good freshmen class of Jesus Alvarez, Wyatt O’Brien, Zach Villava, Irving Morales, Brayson Hires, Joel Cosino, Matilde Pacheco and Oscar Avilez who are all showing promise.

“These kids work really well together and we will be very competitive in every game,” Field said. “We have some really good speed and a lot of great footwork to go with that and we have a good awareness of our positions and how to support one another.”

One weakness of the team this season is their youth, but Field said they will develop over time. In order to improve on their 5-11 record last season, Field said the team will be working on playing their positions and being able to recognize situations on their feet as the game goes on.

“The highlight of last season was watching young players develop into mature soccer players even though we had a losing season according to stats,” Field said.