Blanco has LEE in title-contending form
Led by uniquely talented senior Jesus Blanco, the LEE Volunteers are back in championship-contending form heading into their Class 6A first-round road playoff match against Judson on Thursday.
When Blanco isn’t defending the net as the team’s starting goalkeeper, he tries to place balls into it as a fill-in forward when the Volunteers are searching for an offensive boost.
“It’s amazing to see him have the focus to switch between roles because he is able to contribute in multiple places,” LEE senior central defender Tate Martinez said of Blanco. “We can make those switches because of our core. We’re not a team of 11. We’re really a team of 22, so having a goalkeeper like Jesus who can fill both roles really adds to the fire.”
Blanco has allowed five goals in 23 matches at goalkeeper. He has recorded five goals and five assists as a forward.
Blanco served as the Volunteers’ backup goalkeeper two years ago when the Volunteers went 28-1 and won the Class 6A state championship. With Joey Batrouni, one of the nation’s top goalkeeping recruits, opportunities for Blanco to defend the net were limited in 2021.
Knowing that, Blanco played forward — “for fun” as he put it — during practice. That caught the attention of Volunteers coach David Rogers.
“He was a pure finisher in practice,” Rogers said. “I noticed he had a knack for scoring. That’s the hardest thing to do in soccer. … He had a little more pizzazz than the rest of the kids as far as finesse on the ball. It was just natural.”
Until two years ago, Blanco had never played forward in a match. He had grown up playing goalkeeper in his native Colombia and continued in that role when he joined the Volunteers in 2021.
“His feet are like glue,” Rogers said. “He’s so hard to get the ball from. He’s built like a bull. Anybody who makes contact with him usually bounces off.”
That was enough to convince Rogers to give Blanco a shot at forward. For most of 2021, Blanco came off the bench at forward and played goalkeeper when matches were already in hand. Although Blanco had never played forward, he didn’t hesitate at the opportunity.
“I said, ‘OK. Let’s go,’ ” Blanco said. “As a striker, I have to score. That’s my job.”
Blanco said his background as a goalkeeper benefits him.
“It helps me because I know how a goalkeeper thinks against a striker, and I think it gives me more advantages to score,” Blanco said. “I’m really grateful to Coach for giving me the opportunity. I think it was good to find out about another position and explore more options to help my team.”
During the Volunteers’ statetitle run in 2021, Blanco was promoted to starting forward because of an injury to Efrain Cortes, who pulled his hamstring toward the end of the regular season. Blanco started at forward for LEE’S final eight games, which included seven in the playoffs.
With Batrouni headed to Coastal Carolina to play college soccer, Blanco was ready to assume the starting goalkeeping duties last year. That ended during the Volunteers’ second scrimmage, when Blanco suffered a season-ending knee injury.
With a majority of their starters having graduated, Blanco was a valuable returner. Without him, the Volunteers lacked quality depth at the net, and it led to a first-round exit from the playoffs last year.
“I thought before Jesus went down, we had a legitimate chance to make a deep run,” Rogers said.
The Volunteers allowed goals in 25 matches last year. This year, they’ve yielded eight goals in 23 matches.
The Volunteers went 12-3-1 in district play last season, which ended a three-season undefeated run in league action. LEE had a combined 40-0-2 district record from 2019 to 2021.
After losing one match in 2021, the Volunteers were 15-7-3 overall last year. LEE finished behind Reagan and Johnson in District 28-6A in 2022. The Volunteers haven’t forgotten that.
“It was pretty humiliating, the way other teams treated us after they beat us,” Rogers said. “We’d only lost three district games last season, but it sparked us for the offseason. It was a ‘be careful what you say because it’s going to be bulletin board material.’ I think it propelled us to a district championship because we were mentally tough.”
The Volunteers rebounded by winning the District 28-6A championship, going 13-0-3 (200-3 overall). They have scoreless draws against Brandeis, Johnson and Reagan. The Volunteers are 65-3-6 in district play over the last five seasons.
“We learned a lot of lessons from last year,” Martinez said. “It’s such a big opportunity to take it all the way this year.”
The Volunteers return eight starters from last year. Three Volunteers who took the field when they defeated Rockwallheath 2-0 in the 2021 state championship are still on the team — Blanco, senior midfielder Juan Aviles and senior defender Saul Tellez.
“They are leaders for us to look up to, and on the flipside, we have like 15-20 guys who haven’t won state, and we are extremely hungry,” Martinez said. “We see that it’s possible, and we can achieve what has been achieved.”