Nearly a dozen Lady Brahma soccer players were recently named to the All- District 60-4A team. Senior Marie Nowlin won a share of the district’s Defensive Most Valuable Player award. Sophomore Hayley Etheridge was voted as Newcomer of the Year.

Making the first all-district team were Senior Katrina Cantu, Junior Vonique Rodriguez and Sophomore Kelly Ryan. Selected to the second alldistrict team were Senior Mary Yeary, and Juniors Rebecca Campos and Krysylda Ramirez.

Receiving Honorable Mention was Sophomore Amabely Alanis. Senior Niki Arevalo was an all-academic selection.

“We’re pretty talented,” Head Coach Wayland Sanders said. “We have plenty of girls who are dedicated to achieving these types of individual goals.”

Sanders, who estimates 90 percent of this season’s roster coming back next year, said both players and coach should benefit from their 2009-2010 acclimation.

“We’re only losing three seniors,” Sanders said. “The returners know the routine now and I as a coach know more what to expect.”

H.M. King went 12-5-2 overall this season and finished in second place in District 60-4A with a 7-2-1 record. In Sanders’ inaugural season as head coach, H.M. King reached the bidistrict round of the playoffs, where they were eliminated by Gregory Portland. With this season now behind him, Sanders looks to polish up his players’ A-B-C’s.

“We are really working on basic skills like our trapping and movement around the field to open up more passing,” Sanders said.

The seasoned rookie coach is also harnessing the girls’ spirits.

“We are trying to become more competitive, these younger girls were kind of shell shocked in the playoffs,” Sanders said. “It was a very big deal for us and they were asked to step up a lot more than normal sophomores usually are. We’re competing amongst ourselves in three player teams during our athletic period to keep ourselves in a competitive frame of mind.”

The Lady Brahmas will face a different lineup next season after the University Interscholastic League realigned the state’s soccer municipalities last Thursday. Next year, H.M. King will play against Alice, Flour Bluff, Robstown, Calallen and Tuloso-Midway. This season, the Lady Brahmas tangoed with Alice, Robstown and Laredo high schools Cigarroa, LBJ and Nixon. Sanders said there would be no gimme-games in 60-4A next season.

“It is going to be a little tougher, especially against Flour Bluff who made it all the way to the regional finals and is only losing one senior,” Sanders said. “They should be the same caliber of team next year. We beat Calallen in a tournament earlier this season but they are very competitive and young like we are.”