Before this season, it was in September 2023 when the Pojoaque Valley girls soccer team last won a game.
But new coach Andrew Romero, who was an assistant last season, is looking to rebuild the program from its roots.
“From what I could see last year, we were short on players,” he said. “So I went out and started recruiting to get people interested in the soccer program. Now we have 19 girls on the roster.”
That is certainly a positive futbol boot forward, but the Elkettes still have quite a bit of work on the horizon, Romero admitted.
“We started preseason since June,” he said. “We started doing posts on social media, Instagram, letting kids know and we had a good turnout throughout the entire summer. And we’ve done a lot of fundraising. We have a lot of supporters in the community. They donated sweats and uniforms and training equipment.”
Still, it’s going to require some patience.
“Most of them have never played sports, or have never played soccer,” he said, “So this year, our whole intention is to rebuild the foundation for the Pojoaque Valley girls soccer program. The whole plan this season is to do a lot of community outreach with the youth. I want to have some of these high school kids go and be officials or linemen for Pojoaque Valley (youth) Soccer League so that way, they’re also mentors and give back to the community.”
Although the team is young and inexperienced when it comes to soccer, Romero said there is definitely a spark there.
“I’m very excited because we have a lot of girls with high potential, high motivation, which is going to drive our team,” he said. “Our expectations for this team, and I’ve said it since the beginning, is we’re going to make strides.”
The team returns five players from a squad that did not score a goal last season, but Romero is looking for a strong season from his back line, including senior Estrella Guillen and juniors Paetyn Romero, Natalie Romero and Eileen Bencomo. They will be providing the wall in front of first-time junior goalkeeper Nyanna Reyes.
“I will say, this year we got a rebrand,” Romero said. “Pojoaque has a whole new image. Athletic director Sean Jimenez stands behind us. That type of support is going to take us a long way. Once you understand that people back you, you get that pride and motivation to try harder.”
Additionally, the defenders will provide the team’s leadership, the coach said, which is already bearing fruit as more than anything, the team has a much better approach this season.
“This is a team that is night and day from last year,” he said. “We got a lot of good recruits. We’ve got a lot of people with positive attitudes.”
And that should translate into better results on the field.
“When people think about sleepers, it’s going to be the Elkettes this year,” Romero said. “In all honesty, our biggest uphill battle is believing in ourselves. Everybody always tells us how we’re below the skill level of everybody else. That’s untrue. I just have to boost these guys’ morale and motivate them that they are just as high-caliber as everybody else.”