You’re on the field, working hard with sweat pouring down your back and your chest heaving. You’ve been doing this all season – going beyond your limits. You aren’t getting hardly enough recognition as you should. You take one deep breath and sprint after the ball. Dodging one player after another until you reach the ball. You dribble it up to the goal and score the game winning point. You’re successful on the boys’ soccer teams, but you still don’t get the same adoration as other teams, especially the girls’ soccer team.

“Once we win the playoffs as often as the girls do, then our time will come,” said Varsity boys soccer coach, Nathan Hetherington. Only winning thirteen out of twenty-one games this season, its hard not to see how hard these players work. Senior Varsity co-captain, Daniel Mahjouri, said, “Everyone on the team is always willing to improve.” And it’s the same with the Junior Varsity team.

“We work really hard as a team and we win to represent our school,” said Junior Varsity captain, Eddy Aiza. The Junior Varsity team works just as hard as the Varsity team. They play at the same level as the Varsity team and hope to one day have the same experiences as them.

Junior Varsity coach, Evan McNeley, said, “Our most memorable game is yet to be had.” Both teams are looking to make a lot of memories this year. Their biggest goal, though, is to get more support from the student body and more cheering fans in the stands. “My most memorable game was when we were playing CCA and we had a ton of fans out there and we came back from losing and tied the game,” the other captain of the boys’ soccer team, Dante Mancinelli, said. To keep the momentum and energy going, the team wants fans to show up to their games and cheer them on just like the girls’ fans.

Only losing three games this season, it is easy to see how the girls’ soccer team received their recognition. With an amazing coach and hard-working athletes, these girls have worked their way to the top. Winning multiple tournaments in San Diego and other parts of California including their own, the girls have left their mark on the school and on California.

The boys’ coaches try their best to give their athletes the best opportunities for success. Nathan Hetherington and Evan McNeley both played professionally and now they’re passing down their knowledge to their players. Hetherington played eight years for the San Diego Flash, Atlanta Silverbacks, and the San Diego Sockers. Now, he plays for “pure enjoyment” and has been coaching at Cathedral for the past two years. Coaching for the San Point Idaho soccer team and for the Rancho Sante Fe Attack club team, McNeley is happy here at Cathedral. Coaching at Cathedral has been his first time coaching high school soccer and he plans on staying here.

Both the Junior Varsity and Varsity teams feel that with their high-profile coaching staff and dedicated athletes, they can succeed just as much as the girls have. Practicing for an hour and a half five days a week, these boys are devoted and ready to learn more. Eddy Aiza said, “We all put a huge amount of effort in as a team because we want to become better players.” The girls are talented athletes, but over the next few years the boys believe they are going to surprise everyone when they begin to win with their unprecedented skill.

Be sure to watch the Varsity team face our rivals, the Saint Augustine Saints (a teams that the girls could never play or beat), at Manchester Stadium at 3:30 p.m. Also, the Junior Varsity team plays the Saints at their home field at 3 p.m.

Check out @ElCidSports on Twitter for updates on all of our Winter sports teams.