FastTakes with FastBreak: San Antonio Soldados
The San Antonio Soldados come into this season hungry after a disappointing end to their 2023 season with a difficult loss in the quarterfinals at MLQ champs last year. The team now looks to reach towards a higher potential with new coaches and a roster filled with returning veterans and many younger players hoping to make a name for themselves throughout the season. This team is predominantly made up of current and former players from the UTSA and Texas State college programs, which puts the team in a great position behind first time Soldados head coaches David Avila, of Texas State, and Milena Sousa, of UTSA, both already proven leaders of their respective schools’ teams. Both of these programs finished within the elite eight in the College D1 division at Nationals, with UTSA making a finals run, and are hungry to come out on top this summer. The Soldados have much to look forward to this summer as they find themselves acquiring a plethora of new players with several former Soldados returning from previous seasons headlined by that of MLQ Champions Miguel Esparza and Daniel Williams. Can these new additions and first year head coaches take the Soldados to their first ever MLQ Championship?
Returning Players (15):
David Avila (Texas State)
Matthew Blackwood (UTSA)
Kyle Bryant (UTSA)
Kristopher De La Fuente (Pegasus)
Emme Gouveia (UTSA)
Catherine Hay (Texas State)
Luke Langlinais (Unaffiliated)
Riley Moehlmann (UTSA)
Carlos Prado (Pegasus)
Terra Robinson (UTSA)
Trevor Smith (Pegasus)
Milena Sousa (UTSA)
Javi Tijerina (UTSA)
Alyssa Villalba (UTSA)
Austin Watson (UTSA)
Roster Additions (15):
D’Adrian Avila (Unaffiliated)
Chance Cooper (Texas State)
Hailey Davis (UTSA)
Anna Dickerson (Texas State)
Miguel Esparza (Warriors)
Stephan Freeman-Vigil (Unaffiliated)
Jess Markle (Unaffiliated)
TJ Martinez (Unaffiliated)
Rebecca Rocha (Pegasus)
Nathaniel Saldivar (Pegasus)
Alfredo Serrano (UTSA)
Isaac Sueltenfuss (University of Texas)
Sam Watson (UTSA)
Daniel Williams (Warriors)
Jayden Z-T (UTSA)
Key Losses:
John Alvarez
Christian Cortez
Dilan Freeman
Brandy Gomez
Bradley Himes
Maya Hinebaugh
David Rodriguez
Jay Stewart
Season Preview:
The season ahead holds many question marks for the Soldados. With possibly the biggest one being how they will go about in meshing their returning players with new acquisitions. The roster finds itself retaining just fifteen players from last year, meaning half of this roster will look to find their footing among returning players. Soldados will need to accomplish this quickly as they look ahead towards their early season matchup with the Kansas City Stampede, who also have new coaching in Brenna Duncan. The Stampede has added major pieces across the board, and this will be a hard fought matchup for the Soldados. A month later, the Soldados will head out in a matchup with the League City Legends. This matchup is one to anticipate as the growth of both teams has been noted with another first year coaching staff at League City under Hayden Boyes. The series will also be one to watch as rivalry stems from outside of MLQ with many players on both teams playing against each other on college teams during the USQ season, Soldados will also face off against former Soldado, Baldemar Nunez. A key series for this team will be in their away series with the Austin Outlaws. Both teams have swapped many players during the offseason and lost key players from last year, meaning this series is wide open for either team to take. Lastly, the Soldados will try to get revenge on the New Orleans Curse for taking a game from them last season in their series in New Orleans. This will be big in building momentum as it will be the Soldados last series which could provide serious implications for trying to clinch their seeding heading into a potential MLQ Championship bid. The Soldados have a difficult road this season, but it is one that their coaching staff is welcoming and ready to take on.
Roster Discussion:
This roster, while rather different than previous years, holds a great amount of talent from top to bottom and could make some serious noise in the league this season. A major change from last year is the return of previous MLQ Most Valuable Player and last year’s league leader in goals scored, Miguel Esparza, as he returns from his season wearing blue and white. He, along with Austin Outlaws and Team USA teammate, Daniel Williams, will need to lead this young core on the field as they take their talents back down the road to San Antonio. Outside of these two champions, the team has much to look forward to in the return of veteran beater, Jess Markle. Markle will be a key player for this team as a leader and veteran on this team. The split of chasing from the additions of veterans TJ Martinez and Stephen Freeman-Vigil, and returners Carlos Prado and Luke Langlanais, brings electric scoring ability and hard nosed defensive capability. When looking at college presences on this team, the name that pops out is Matthew Blackwood. Blackwood has been a top scorer for the UTSA team over his tenure with the team. Blackwood brings with him several of his teammates who made a run to the collegiate finals, some of which won with him the year prior, in Riley Moehlmann, Austin Watson, Alfredo Serrano, Alyssa Villalba, Emme Gouveia, Javi Tijerina, Sam Watson, Terra Robinson and Kyle Bryant. Standout Alyssa Villalba is also returning for her second year with championship experiences from UTSA and will look to expand even further from her impressive 2023 MLQ rookie campaign, of which she was able to score nine times. Excitingly, the team acquired MLQ rookie chaser Isaac Sueltenfuss from the University of Texas. Sueltenfuss is a tall presence on hoops that will make shooting on this Soldados team difficult, while also being a big threat offensively. Texas State brings in many key players as well, especially that of Catherine Hay. This will be Hay’s third season with the Soldados, and her addition to this line will be vital as she is a shifty player who can do it all on offense while being able to lockdown defensively. To top it all off, a coaching staff with compassion for their players and who are great with building player relationships and skills will make this team a must-watch squad.
Team Questions:
Depth:
Depth will be a big question for the Soldados throughout the season. This team is depending on the development of their young talent in order to fill out their roster and compete. The top of the Saldados roster looks as competitive as ever, but the first line cannot do it all. Finding replacements for major scoring threats and seeking production from the likes of Jay Stewart, David Rodriguez and John Alvarez will be vital. Additionally, with the departure of both Maya Hinebaugh and Brandy Gomez, this team lost players who played major shifts with both players playing 95+ beater shifts last season. The team will lean on beaters Sam Watson, Jess Markle and Kyle Bryant to play in their absence. When looking at seeker work, Trevor Smith was able to account for two out of the five total flag catches in the Soldados 2023 campaign, but now with the other flag catchers from last year departed, who will be able to step up to assist Smith in creating flag catching opportunities for this team? While this team may have lost key players, the Soldados hold two players on the US National Team as well as two players on the USNTDA, as well as a group of college players with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.
Winning on the Road:
With each team in the South division growing, taking advantage of advantageous positions in their schedule needs to happen in order to find success. The Saldados have a major advantage in that they will not have to leave the state of Texas during their regular season. For a team that has struggled when traveling during the last two seasons, this could find itself as a positive for their performance. Over the last two seasons, the Soldados have taken four out of the six total matches against this Stampede team, and this will be an early season test for this team and its chemistry. As with every year, the South will not be an easy division to navigate a path to MLQ Championships. This team will need to take advantage of a series at home where teams such as Curse and Stampede are both having to travel to Soldados. Series at home have proven to have success for Soldados as the team has lost at least one game in three out of their last four away series. The results of these two series will be very telling for this Soldados team in what they may look like going forward in the season.
Kansas City Preview:
The Soldados start their season off with the Stampede from the comfort of their home in San Antonio, looking towards this matchup and preparing for battle with their coaches, David Avila and Milena Sousa, leading the charge. The Stampede charges into San Antonio with only a roster of 16, but this group comes with its challenges. When preparing for this roster, Soldados will need to prepare to battle against USNTDA beaters, Keighlyn Johnson and Madi Namanny. Both are veterans to MLQ and are no strangers to playing long minutes at high levels. Pairing this with MLQ veteran, Justin Dewick, makes this quite the test for San Antonio, as well as a rookie to watch in this series, Derek Dearking, from Creighton’s Blue Jay program. The chaser matchup does not get much easier as Lauren Smith and Anya Ortiz begin their first season wearing red and yellow. Soldados will need to look to their depth in this game to match up with the star power of Stampede. While the Soldados already have established stars in the likes of MLQ Champions, Miguel Esparza and Daniel Williams, others on this team will need to step up in order to not let this series slip from them. Look for a fast paced offense for this team to take advantage of a shortened Stampede roster and for Soldados to use their high level athleticism and depth to try and take over this game. Missing veteran Luke Langlanais will be a major loss for this team, as he provides this Soldados team with a lot of physicality and is an enforcer in the chaser line.. Expect players such as Carlos Prado and USNTDA player, Matthew Blackwood, to step up and play physical defense in the chaser game and create offensive opportunities on the other end. This team will need to ensure their beaters can make it the distance in this game. With only three listed beaters rostered for this series, look for utility players to fill that gap and create opportunities for the Soldados, such as Kristopher De La Fuente, who finished his 2023 regular season with 177 beater drives which was third in the entire league. A rookie to watch for Soldados in this series is going to be Sam Watson at beater. Watson just completed her first season under the UTSA program, and has quite the test ahead of her with this beater matchup. Watson’s play, along with the rest of the beating core, will be the potential determining factor in these games. While this series is expected to be close, especially with the earlier games, Soldados depth and experience will ultimately put them in the driver’s seat in this battle to take them over the finish line.
Prediction: 3-0 San Antonio
