Yoe Soccer opens 2017 season

This past week, the Yoemen and Lady Yoe soccer teams took on their first opponents of the season in tournament action.

Yoemen

In their first action of the year, Cameron finished with a 0-3 mark in the Jarrell tournament. The Yoemen opened up tournament play with a 5-0 loss to host Jarrell on Thursday. Cameron also took losses to 6A West Brook (7-0) on Friday and 4A Robinson (6-0) on Saturday.

The matches did not result in wins, but valuable experience was gained in the early portion of the season.

“It was perfect for us because we got a lot of experience,” said head coach Kevin Webb. “Almost half of the kids there were freshmen playing against true varsity competition for the first time. They had a lot of things to deal with, including the weather on top of worrying about these much bigger schools. I think it was invaluable.”

As with all team sports, having a cohesive unit is critical to success. That is something Webb and others feel is evident with this year’s team.

“One of the officials in the second game we played said it best. He said your kids are going to be a lot better this year because they play as a team. It was something I had been noticing, but it was good that an outside pair of eyes saw the same thing.”

Though it is early, Cameron has had good stretches of play in their matches. Moving forward, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together should translate into more success.

“I want to see us be able to compete for 80 minutes,” said Webb. “We play a good half here then a horrible half, or we'll play a good part of a half. We just haven't put it all together and a lot of that is being young. As the weeks go on before we get into district I'd like us to start competing in these games.”

Lady Yoe

The Lady Yoe made the long-distance trip to Waller last weekend to open up the 2017 season. Cameron finished 0-2 in their first two matches before the tournament was cancelled due to a cold weather policy.

Cameron fell to 4A Sweeny (5-0) in the opener before dropping their second match 6A Klein Oak (9-0).

Playing larger competition is something that should pay dividends later in the season.

“I think it's good for our team to see other teams that are already established,” said Lay Yoe coach Laura Dickson. “They can see how things should look. Just with the inexperience we have to see how they rotate defensively and that type of stuff.”

According the UIL, Klein Oak came in as the 15th largest school in the state with over 4,000 students. That did not stop Cameron from battling early, trailing just 3-0 at the half.

“I really liked the adjustments that we made, said Dickson. “When we asked them to do something they would try it. They were very inexperienced, so they may not have the skill to follow up with what we did, but we tried.”

Throughout non-district play, the goal will be to continually gain experience after losing a good crop of seniors from last year’s team.

“We need to continue to work together and learn each other,” stated Dickson. “We graduated six seniors last year and there are a couple of others that aren't playing, so we need to continue to work together and improve every game.”

Cameron Tournament

Cameron will be hosting a tournament this Thursday through Saturday from Yoe Field. Action will begin at noon on Thursday.

Teams included: Academy, Caldwell, Cameron, Florence, Hearne, Madisonville and Yoakum.

The Lady Yoe will play Yoakum (4:00 p.m.) on Thursday, Academy (2:40 p.m.) and Florence (5:20 p.m.) on Friday, and Madisonville (1:00 p.m.) on Saturday. The Yoemen draw Caldwell (6:40 p.m.) on Thursday, Academy (1:20 p.m.) and Florence (4:00 p.m.) on Friday, and Hearne (11:40 a.m.) on Saturday.