Mexico has several athletic programs that bring many wins and kids every year.

Girls soccer aims to join them after achieving its most wins in five years with seven victories a year ago.

Brad Norton steps in as head coach with many years of coaching experience, including a good amount in travel soccer. His family moved to Mexico from Utah a year and a half ago and he is liking the community and the girls he is coaching.

“They are a good group,” Norton said. “They are funny, but they will work hard and have fun.”

Norton said Mexico has around 22 girls on the roster, which he admitted is “lighter” than he wanted, but he said an even distribution between the four classes. He said there are seven who have “really solid” soccer experience and another seven who are growing and can fill those gaps in varsity.

Kaili Cox was all-district, Brenda Matuz-Sanchez and Bella Cummings each scored multiple goals for the Lady Bulldogs last season, Marali Herrera-Amaya and Bailey Christianson have a lot of varsity experience, and Cassandra Young is a sophomore that played goalkeeper last season. Herrera, Cummings and Christianson are in the senior group along with Elise Galloway.

“Some of the older girls, particularly the seniors and a couple of the juniors, will naturally step up,” Norton said. “I’ve been able to have them lead the beginning of practice workouts. They are willing to step up into those leadership roles.”

Beyond when spring practices started in March, Norton said Mexico has had open fields since January. He said the emphasis since has been pace.

“We’re working on playing faster and more aggressively,” Norton said. “We want to spend as much time on the opposing team’s side of the field as we possibly can and not much on our heels playing defense.”

Norton said there are some girls who are versatile so Mexico could “stack it heavy for an attack” with some from the defensive line. The Lady Bulldogs could go the other way as well to counter teams with strong attackers.

Mainly, Norton said Mexico wants to move the ball with purpose and not just kick the ball aimlessly. He also doesn’t want them to find themselves chasing or running too much even though soccer is a sport that emphasizes conditioning.

Norton would like to see the number of girls grow to 30 or even more than 40 in a consistently competitive program. Success on the field should help, but he wants girls to “focus on the positive” and realize mistakes will happen.

“Our hope is to have the best season we’ve had in the last decade plus,” Norton said. “We have the team to be able to do it. We’ll see how they gel together and play together.”