Soccer gets ready for season

Ramez Antoun, the new boys’ soccer coach for the Wimberley Texans, sat down recently with this View sports reporter to preview the 2018-2019 soccer season and talk about his plans for the upcoming 2018-2019 season. A rarity for American high school soccer coaches (girls or boys), Antoun actually played the game as a club player and remains a diehard fan of the world’s most popular sport.

Originally from Egypt, Coach Antoun played the game as a boy then with advanced soccer programs and teams) His family emigrated to Canada in 1976 and he is married to an American so he will soon obtain dual citizenship as both a Canadien and an American.

Antoun will be assisted by Kelly Parker who also teaches at Wimberley High School. “I’m so lucky to have Coach Parker as my assistant because he also knows the game. I won’t need to micromanage him with the JV team because I can just say, ‘Okay, Coach Parker, here’s your team. Go do it’ and he’s ready to build a team.”

“We don’t start official practice for a couple of weeks, but that comes soon. Some of the experienced players already have been working together on skills and conditioning. Jack and Grant Cole, Mason O’Connor and Alan Hernandez played on last year’s team. Almost all of our players are now working hard in the weight room,” Antoun says. “That includes senior Ramsey Frank who is just a monster on the weight machines.”

Now that the football season is over, the soccer team will see five veteran players, all seniors, moving to soccer. Those veteran players include Bryan Ramos, Remy Wade, Nick Kohls, Landon Crowder and Aaron Arroyo.

New to the team this year, but possibly making the varsity, include Jose’ Cabrera (10) and Brenden Shott (12). “Jose’ was on the JV last year,” Coach Antoun says, “This year his work ethic has improved and raised his stock. Brenden, a goalkeeper, hasn’t played high school soccer before but he’s experienced with club teams.”

Summing up his expectations for the 2018-2019 season, Coach Antoun says, “For this season, we expect to be solid defensively and to play intelligent soccer. Our goal this year isn’t just to get into the playoffs; our goal once we get there is to do some damage.”

The first competition for the Texans will be the home scrimmage against Lampasas on December 28. The coach also hopes to add a new wrinkle to the schedule with an alumni game on January 4 at 6:00.

The Texans first game that counts for playoff records occurs on January 8 against Liberty Hill, one of the teams the Wimberley coach lists as this year’s toughest teams on the schedule. The other traditional rivals, according to Antoun, include Fredericksburg and Boerne. Wimberley will play each of the three on a home-andhome basis with the results effecting district play-off seeding.