Warrenton senior midfielder Bryan Guerrero and head coach John Schulte are both confident the Warriors are poised for more success on the soccer pitch this season. 

Guerrero is among several starters returning from last year’s 6-15 team. Fellow senior Owen Thompson returns as the Warriors’ starting goalie. The Warriors will also feature several returning starters and sophomore Travis Corbett, who transferred to Warrenton. 

“So far, the team bonding is excellent compared to last year’s,” Guerrero said. “I feel like we’re improving. We know the game and we’re going to show that Warrenton’s really good at this sport.” 

Schulte credits the work the Warriors put in over the summer, which he believes helped prepare them for the upcoming season. He said the Warrior players were putting in work two to three days a week, on top of the two days of soccer activities already scheduled. That kind of love for the game is something the Warriors need, Schulte said. 

“They want to get better,” Schulte said. “They’re being very coachable right now. Everything that we’re doing, the kids are really receptive to it. They’re making those runs and talking just about our whole offensive theme. And they’re doing a really good job with staying within that context of what we want.” 

Schulte thinks the team’s chemistry is great. He credited their work over the summer for building the team chemistry. 

Warrenton’s focus early on in August practice was on conditioning and tactics, among other aspects of the game. 

“So far, we’re working on our tactics, our movements of the ball offensively and how defensively we’re supposed to be shaped,” Guerrero said. “And a lot of conditioning. We’ve been going through a lot of conditioning.” 

Schulte spoke highly of Warrenton’s conditioning level early in practices. Once again, he stressed the advantages to Warrenton putting in so much work this offseason.

Warrenton’s roster makeup provides Schulte positional flexibility. Many of the players can play in three or four different spots, Schulte said. 

Guerrero stressed the Warriors are motivated to have more success on the soccer pitch this season. 

“We have a lot of goals,” Guerrero said. “Last year, we were supposed to win a lot more games. But unfortunately we didn't. I feel like this year, we’re motivated, we’re hungry and we’re going to win more games…I feel like we can have 10 games that we could win, 13, and hopefully go farther in districts.” 

In order for that to happen, Schulte thinks decision making on the field will play a big factor. Schulte has seen positive signs regarding Warrenton’s runs, checking, getting the ball behind the defense and successful crosses more than last season. Schulte thinks this will help the Warriors go from a tie or close loss to being ahead on the scoreboard. 

“You come off to the side and you're talking to kids and you're like, I don’t know what to tell you man,” Schulte said. “(It) happened a lot last year. I'm like, we played great, we dominated them. We passed the ball around. We were in their end for 25, 35 minutes. This half we just didn't score, you know, and they broke out and scored on us. So they win the game and that's what's crazy about soccer sometimes is the team that dominates isn't always the one that wins.”

Warrenton will open their season with a home game against Winfield Aug. 26. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m.