Men’s soccer set to open preseason practices on Monday
Monday will mark one of the most important times of the season for the UHV men's soccer team.
The Jaguars, coming off the program's eighth consecutive 10-win season following an 11-4-2 mark in 2023, are set to open preseason practices and set the standards and tone for the 2024 season.
"The biggest thing is setting the expectations and setting the work right on how we want to do things," said head coach Adrian Rigby, who enters his 15th season in charge of the program. "We want to set the standard early so everyone's aware of how we want to do things."
UHV reached the conference tournament for the ninth consecutive year last year and is seeking its eighth conference title after winning the Red River Athletic Conference regular season titles in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021, and the RRAC Tournament championships in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
The Jaguars return three of their five top goalscorers from 2023 in Yahir Pena (7), Einar Rolfsen (5) and Diby Kouassi (3). Pena was an RRAC All-Freshman team selection after a superb freshman year in which the Pharr native set a single-game goals scored record with four against Texas College on Sept. 14.
In addition to Pena, second-team All-RRAC honoree Carlos Quinones returns for UHV this year following a year in which he scored twice and provided two assists. Adam Thompson, who had two goals and an assist last year, returns as the most experienced member of the team with 47 career matches played for the Jaguars.
Tyler Kaeppeli enters his junior season for the Jaguars after posting seven shutouts for the second consecutive season.
"Obviously, you rely on the returners to set the tone of the way we do things here and the expectations," Rigby said. "But we do have a group of new guys, so we have to work with them to explain how we do things. So, we're looking forward to working with all of them."
The Jaguars have three scrimmages in preseason, including at home against Texas A&M-International at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, before opening the regular season on the road at Nelson University (formerly SAGU) on Aug. 29.