On April 9th, 10th, and 11th, district-mandated STAAR testing will commence for students at our school. But who cares about that? After school on those days, boys and girls in seventh and eighth grade that think they have a shot go through tryouts for the finals team of the 2017-18 school year: the soccer team!

No matter who is on the teams this year, they will have a big legacy to live up to. Last year, the girl’s soccer team lost on a tiebreaker in the final against Walsh middle school, and the boy’s soccer team won their first-ever district championship, 2-1 versus the same school. No one feels the pressure to succeed more than Diego Djordjevic, who started at both attacking midfielder and goalkeeper during the season and was a part of the team that won the championship last year.

“We won it all last year, so all the other schools are scared of us and want to beat us more than other. We have higher expectations than the rest of the district. A bigger target on our backs. We have to deliver,” Djordjevic (8) said.

And that all starts with the head coach. The championship-winning coach Fred Reyna is gone, having already