Cinco Ranch boys, girls not shying from state title aspirations
Cinco Ranch soccer finds itself in a rare position.
Both teams reached the state tournament last season, making Cinco Ranch the first Katy ISD school to do so since Katy Taylor accomplished the feat in 2000.
Now, both the boys and girls, who are among each other’s biggest fans, are making a push to do it again.
“I like the fact that our programs are so close and want to support each other, because it does motivate the boys,” Cinco Ranch boys coach Mason Whit- field said. “They want to play hard and when the girls are there, they feel appreciated and they play even harder.”
The Cougars began the season seventh in the topdrawersoccer.com FAB 50 national rankings, and are now 10th and the fifthhighest ranked team from Texas with a 9-0-4 record.
“It’s always good to use as a tool for us to help motivate us, but I remind our kids that technically it’s just paper,” Whitfield said of the rankings. “It’s great that they’ve accomplished something on paper, but if they don’t back it up on the field, it doesn’t matter. They have to go out there and play as if everyone has a target on their back.”
On the other side, the girls started the season with more questions after graduating 10 seniors that led the way to consecutive state tournaments and three regional finals.
“I want the team to have its own identity,” said girls coach Fredy Sanguinetti, nowin his seventh season. “It is a different team from last year … (and) we’re always going to be associated with the great teams of the past, but we just want to write our own story.”
The Cougars have found their way. Following losses to nationally-ranked Klein and The Woodlands in the I-10 Shootout, they’re 6-0-1 since, and, at 5-0-1 in District 19-6A, are right where they were a year ago — in first place.
Cinco Ranch went a combined 44-5-3 over the last two years, which included an undefeated district title and 18-game win streak in 2015. Part of that team is now leading the way in 2016, including Lily Bravenec, Kamy Birk, Kendall Hollo and Sophie Salverino.
“We have a very nice group of juniors that got some playing time last year and little by little they grew,” said Sanguinetti, whose Cougars have outscored opponents 27-1 in district play. “This year they’ve been phenomenal. They’ve basically taken over some of the responsibilities and taken some of the play from the seniors and went with it.”
The boys, who didn’t lose a game last year until the state final, already have five wins this season over 2015 playoff teams. Key returners include seniors Patrick Hillyard, last year’s district MVP, and Donnovan Smith, as well as junior Nic Fielden.
For either team, however, nothing is a given, whether it be a district championship or a trip to state. The boys first reached the state tournament in 2008, but took seven years to get back. The girls fell in the 2013 region finals and didn’t make their first state trip until the next year.
“When you look back at what happened last year and how tough it was on us, you take any given year and you just have to say getting back is a dream and you hope you can keep doing it,” Whitfield said.