It has been over a year since the Western Nebraska Community College women's and men's soccer teams took to the field for a competitive contest.
This weekend that will all change as the Cougar women and men will open the spring soccer season with matches at Southeast Community College on Friday and Central Community College-Columbus on Saturday.
WNCC head soccer coach Todd Rasnic said the team and coaches are more than ready to get on the field to see how they compete.
"You don't even know [how excited they are to play]," Rasnic said. "Since we played in a competitive match it has been so long. As a coach, I don't remember when I had this much down time. It definitely time to get back to work."
The two squads have plenty of returners and some newcomers. Still, there are some international players that couldn't get here because of the Coronavirus situation. Rasnic said it doesn't matter, these players just want to play and are excited to face Southeast and Central-Columbus this weekend.
Rasnic said they aren't worried about Southeast and Central-Columbus, they just want to see where they are at and compete to the best of their knowledge.
"Right now it is about us," he said. "Southeast is a new program, but they are right there close to Lincoln and they will have a bunch of good Nebraska kids that will be solid. We just have to go out and put our best face in the game. Right now, just coming in the spring with a lot of the internationals not able to get here with the traveling restrictions like Brazil where traditionally that is my bread and butter of getting higher level athletes to come in, this has been an interesting challenge. We are a little bit short on numbers so it will be a fight to get through the season. But, looking at the teams, they are solid. The women's team is as good as they have been in a long time just without the numbers. It will be just how well we can perform with the numbers we have and that will say a lot of what we will be doing in the fall as well."
Both teams have a good nucleus of players that are returning from the 2019 teams. The women's team has a lot of talent from that team that had one of its best seasons in quite a well that went 13-4 and fell to Region IX champions Gillette College 3-0 in the Region IX semifinals. Gillette won the regional tournament that year.
The women return seven players from that 13-4 team including leading goal scorer in Gering's Destiny Mueller. Other returners on the women's team include Raquel Ferreira and Ana Caroline-Lopez from Brazil; Ashley Ruiz, Jackie Valenciano, and Litzi Delarosa from Denver; and Ana Von Ruden from Lebanon, Oregon.
Rasnic is excited for what the women's team has to offer. The only question is keeping them all healthy because the women's team only has 14 players.
"We have so many girls returning that were key players like Litzi Delarosa, Andrea Jiminez, and Raquel Ferreira. Those three players have consistently demonstrated a lot. One of our Brazilian mid-fielders got back here this spring in Ana Lopez and she is a tremendous assist to the team. Then, of course, there is Destiny Mueller, who was the leading goal scorer as a forward the last time we had a complete season.
"The issue for us will not be quality, it will be quantity. We are one or two injuries for being down to no substitutions. I am not going to step out on a limb right now and predict where things are at. But, I think we will be a very competitive team this year."
The newcomers to the women's team that will play this spring include Gering's Maddi Parks. Other newcomers include Vicky Granda of Ecuador; Leticia Heemann, Karoline Oliveira, and Leticia Modesto of Brazil; and Andrea Jiminez and Kianna Thompson of Denver.
The men's team also return plenty from the 2019 team that went 10-7 return seven players back from that team that captured 10 years the last time they competed on the pitch.
Returning for their second year are Scottsbluff's Luis Martinez and Jerry Escamilla, and Gering's Criztian Avalos. Also returning are Washington Junior, Vitor Huertas, and Ygor Brito of Brazil; and Esteban Tavira of Denver.
The newcomers to the team include Minatare's Kaleb Gonzales and Alliance's Kevin Castillo. Also new to the team includes Paul Cerros of Mexico; Jacob Collins of Lisburn, United Kingdom; Mario Mejia of West Valley City, Utah; Imanal Munoz of Holdrege; and Saugat Rai of Aurora, Colorado.
Rasnic said that the men will also be competitive with guys that have really stepped up. The Cougar men also have just 14 players on the roster.
"The men are good as well," he said. "Key elements are missing and this is the problem of the spring, but bless the heart of the guys that are stepping up to really try to fill some big shoes. We are missing some key players from our roster that we anticipated having for the spring season mainly because they couldn't get their visas to get overseas. We are in the same boat as the women. We are playing short, but I can tell you that these guys play with determination, they are not going to give up easily, and they are going to work hard until the very last second of each game."
The one thing that will be evident with the soccer teams is their competitive nature. Rasnic is excited for the season because these players want to play and compete and will give 100 percent on the field.
"I think in the end, both teams will play to the level they are able to play to," he said. "That is all I can expect out of them."
After this weekend on the road, the Cougars will return home for a pair of conference games when they face Otero Junior College on Friday, April 9 and then Trinidad State Junior College Saturday, April 10 at Landers Soccer Complex.
The season will continue well into May with the final home match slated for Tuesday, May 11 against Northeastern Junior College. The playoffs start May 15 with first round games and the semis and finals slated for May 21 and 22.