“It’s senior year, and we want to win it all.” Senior, Jerry Maldonado, part of last year’s team that won the NCS championship, is ready for the new soccer season to start. The Trojans are facing the tough task of repeating as champs this year. Now that the soccer season has moved to the winter, they can compete in the state level tournament. Being able to compete in the state tournament means the Trojans have even more work to do as they prepare for the upcoming season.

Senior Hesler Deleon says, “As a team we are in pretty good shape, and we have a very good starting eleven.”  Senior Marcus Erickson adds, “I feel confident, but not over confident about the upcoming season. We have an experienced starting eleven with a strong bench. Overall, I think we will find success through this season with the players we have. We will definitely match, if not exceed, the competition presented to us.” With a good projected starting eleven, they can definitely do some damage this year in the regular season and into the playoffs, but the Trojans still have a lot of work to do. Maldonado states , “We are not the best but certainly not the worst team. We have a lot of work to do in preparation for the big state tournament.”

According to MaxPreps, Terra Linda is ranked ninth in the state, putting them in prime condition for a deep playoff run.

Going deep into the playoffs requires training year round. The entire team plays soccer year round,  most of the team playing for Marin FC, during the offseason. Winning NCS last year proved that TL can  play well as a team. Deleon said, “Last year we really learned how to play as a team, because in years before it was just about the individuals.”

Everybody is looking forward to this season. For many on the team, this is their last year, and they are looking forward to it. Deleon talked about his goals for the season and said,  “This is my last year at TL and I really want to win MCALS, because last year we missed out on winning MCALS.”

Like all teams, they are going to face hardship. Deleon says that “height is going to be problem this year, because the team is smaller team than last year’s.” Maldonado also said, “It is going to be a challenging year, because we can now play in state and the teams we will face will be a lot tougher to beat.” The TL soccer team may have lost some key players from last years team and may lack height, but they certainly do not lack confidence.