Final roster is determined by scrimmage, which demonstrates a player’s skills, attitude and communication, coach says.
By Carlos Ferrand
cferrand@student.alamo.edu
Women’s soccer coach Roger Molina looked on as 20 students showed up ready to play during tryouts Jan. 24 in San Pedro Spring Park.
“I’m looking for the players with the strongest basic skill sets and good attitudes,” Molina said, adding he would find his 25 players by the last tryout Saturday.
Fourteen of the players trying out were returning players from last semester’s squad.
Molina required them to tryout along with new recruits.
One of the new faces on the field was liberal arts freshman Brandy Saldana.
Interested in pursuing a kinesiology degree in her first year in college, Saldana decided to continue to build on her high school athletics.
Tryouts began with basic dribbling and passing exercises before moving on to a more complex workout that had players moving diagonal, up and down the pitch dribbling, passing and finally shooting.
For more than 15 uninterrupted minutes, players moved balls through the diagonal pattern, calling for passes and firing off shots on goal.
The workout forced players to communicate with one another while moving at an exhausting pace.
“I’m not concerned with their conditioning right now,” Molina said.
For the first tryout, skills such as communication and how well the players take coaching are more important, he said.
Above all the other voices heard on the field that day, criminal justice sophomore Iris Solis could be heard communicating with her fellow players.
“This semester, I want to come together as a team and just communicate better,” Solis said.
Solis has played for this college’s soccer team for more than a year and believes communication is the difference between winning and losing.
The most important workout coach Molina uses in selecting his final roster is a scrimmage.
If a player has the skills, attitude and communication, you will find out during the scrimmage, Molina said.
With no word on his final cuts, Molina was pleased with the players during the scrimmage.
Coach Molina was also impressed with the way players trapped the ball, finished hard and communicated.
“They very quickly gelled together. I saw that they were communicating well on the field,” he said.
Games will be 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. Sundays at the S.T.A.R. complex, 5103 David Edwards Drive, adjacent to Morgan’s Wonderland in Northeast San Antonio.
For more information, call the office of student life at 210-486-0125.