Aug. 23 was Seward County Community College’s first ever soccer game. The stands were packed full with excited fans waiting for the game. Unfortunately, the first game resulted in a loss for the Saints, but that didn’t lose support from the fans or the drive of the team. The very next game they won, Freddie Walker being the one to score the first goal in SCCC men’s soccer history. 

Saints Soccer didn’t have much time to prepare for their first ever season. They only had about three weeks to get together as a team and practice.

“None of them have played together so it was challenging but yeah, we had to learn everything from personality to style of play to everything,” said Head coach Jamie Beltran.

Beltran set very high expectations for this being SCCC first ever soccer program, but rightfully so.

“It might’ve seemed to some people that I had too high of a goal and we were pushing too hard, but I really wanted to make sure that we were competitive in every game even as a first-year program that we built a team that could surprise folks and that could challenge for a winning season in a playoff spot,” Beltran said.

The team came together and played wonderfully. The Saints Soccer team went on to make it to the playoffs, which came as a surprise to most teams in the conference. The Saints overall went 8-8-3, scoring 22 goals, and in the conference, they went 3-7-2, scoring 13 goals.

Soccer player Francisco Nava mentioned that going into a new soccer program was beyond his expectations.

“It went beyond my expectations for this place since it was a new team and program,” said Nava. “I didn’t expect us to be more of a family and we did well for our first year.” 

“I expected a lot of new players and good players, as a new soccer program everyone will be on the same page,” said player Mateus Ribeiro. “I feel like we did a good job for our first year since it was mainly freshman players. We made it to the playoffs for our first year.” 

Players mentioned having lots of standout memories throughout the season. Ribiro’s favorite memory was when the team won their first conference game against Coffeyville, at their home. He says it was really nice because the first win of the program was really exciting, especially beating them at their house.

Nava’s favorite memory isn’t on the fields. His standout memory of this season was at the beginning when the team was getting to know each other. Coach Beltran had the team sit outside the green house next to the stairs. The team talked about their personal lives, talked about what each teammate went through to get there and what their families did for them.

“It was just a great experience,” said Nava.

During the off-season players noted that they will be working on themselves athletic-wise for the spring. Nava says that, in order to prepare, he will “[as an individual] just probably work on stuff my coach told me to work on and get in the gym because. The competition is pretty strong since we were freshman this year, we played bigger schools that had older people. Just prepare physically and I can tighten my soccer skills a little bit more.”