Diamonds hoping Year 3 is the year for success

When the spring of 2022 arrived, so, too did soccer for Sallisaw High School. After each team had only one victory in 2023, the boys over district rival Poteau and the girls over non-district opponent Heavener, Sallisaw soccer coach Sinue Rodriguez is hoping year three will begin a period of success for both the Black Diamonds and Lady Diamonds.

“We have four really good assistant coaches, Kiah Smith, Andrew Miller and Logan Aguilera,” Rodriguez said. “We’re trying to find a system that will work for all of us. We think we found something that the kids can cope with and understand. I guess you could say it would be a bit of a miracle (to make the playoffs in year three of the program), but I’ve always been a positive person. You could call it a little bit crazy that we went from ground zero (program being created) to getting a playoff spot. I’m a very competitive person, and I try to coach my kids that way — and install that competitiveness in them.”

Rodriguez has seen the program make strides toward having success, especially in the Lady Diamonds with regards to goals against them.

“This is our third year as a new program,” he said. “We (the Black Diamonds) had some other really close games. We’re just kind of right there (in the midst of the district picture) with the boys. We’re closing that gap between the other teams. Just as the same as the guys, we’re just trying to get the girls to buy into what we’re trying to teach. I think they’re doing a very good job. We’ve cut our deficits (goals against the Lady Diamonds) from 100 the first year (2022) to 40 the next (2023). We kind of cut that in half. We’re just trying to cut that gap between us and every other school. Our ladies did a good job on not conceding a lot of goals last year.”

The Black Diamonds should be very strong this spring, since they only lost one starter from a season ago.

“From the starter’s team, we only graduated one guy,” Rodriguez said. “That’s good because we have 10 of those 11 starters coming back. It’s really a good feeling because they understand our philosophy and what we’re trying to do as a team and as a program.”

Rodriguez said the Lady Diamonds will have some experienced players, but perhaps not quite as much experience as the Black Diamonds squad.

“Just the same as the guys, we have half of our (girls) team that has had some experience and the other half not quite so much,” he said. “If any of those (inexperienced) girls have played, the last time they played was in youth league, which was quite a while ago. We did graduate two seniors who were starters last year, which were Kelsey Merrill and Brooklyn Woody, and we graduated some other ones as well.”

One thing that will help both Sallisaw soccer teams is a drop in classification, especially come district time.

“I think we have a chance at winning some games,” Rodriguez said. “We were in (Class) 4A and we got dropped down to (Class) 3A. We will get more teams that are kind of closer to our level, so it evens itself out a little bit. So, it gives us a little more of a better chance to win some (district) games. We’re just going to battle and really try to compete.”

The top four teams from each district will make the playoffs, which is something Rodriguez believes can happen to both Sallisaw soccer teams.

“That’s really something we focused on in the preseason, just try to get us some goals for the season,” he said. “I believe that both teams will have a really high chance of making it into a playoff spot. It’s just a matter of them buying into our philosophy and buying into what we’re doing as a team.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2024 Spring Sports Guide will publish March 29 with team photographs, rosters and schedules. Your TIMES is needing team photographs of all spring sports teams, numeric rosters of baseball and slowpitch softball teams, rosters for golf and track teams and schedules for all high school spring sports teams. They can be emailed to davids@cookson.news. Team photographs will need to have IDs with them, each row from left to right.