Wylie East boys soccer will be short on experience this season.

“We lost the district MVP to graduation and are still pretty young experience-wise,” WEHS head coach John True said. “We are going to use the first half of the season to find the right mixture and hopefully by the time we get to district we’ll know where we stand.”

Back are Maxwell Quaye, Marcus Saldana, Le DeRose, Mauricio Ruiz, Mason Swanson, Colton Pannell, Liam Garcia, Yonas Manaye and Elliot Janaway.

That group will compete in District with 10-5A with Lovejoy, McKinney North, Sherman, Denison and Class 5A move-up Princeton.

“District is going to be tough. Lovejoy and McKinney North are playoff qualifiers, and Princeton had success in (Class) 4A. We’ve played Sherman and Denison in the past,” True said.

The Raiders start the season in the Jan. 3-5 Princeton Invitational at Jackie Hendricks Stadium. They’ll play Terrell (2 p.m.) and A+ Academy (6:30 p.m.) on Jan. 3 and Crandall (8 p.m.) on Jan. 4.

Wylie East returns home for the Jan. 10-12 Wylie ISD tournament.

Games will be against Mesquite Poteet, Mount Pleasant and Mesquite Horn.

That’s followed by at Wylie (Jan. 18) and North Forney (Jan. 22). They’ll play Community, Texarkana Texas High and Lincoln in the inaugural Showcase of Champions on Jan. 24-26 at Wylie East. Non-district concludes Feb. 1 at Lindale and district opens Feb. 8 at Lovejoy.

For more stories like this, see the Jan. 2 issue or subscribe online.

By David Jenkins • [email protected]