NHS COACH SEEKING TO CONTINUE SUCCESS

Last season was quite a successful one for the Northside Grizzlies, even though the ending was a bit more sudden than anticipated. The Grizzlies put together a 19-3 record and won the outright 7A-Central championship. It ended with a stunning overtime loss on their home field to Rogers Heritage in the quarterfinals of the 7A state tournament. Northside coach Mauricio Maciel thinks that his team can once again contend for the conference title, and maybe have a more lengthy postseason run this time around. “We have key returning players that not only gave us a lot of good minutes, but this year, I will have players as well that are going to be a force to be reckoned with,” Maciel said. “We have good leadership in (senior) Alejandro Iturriaga who plays right fullback; he has matured as well and is very commanding back there. (Senior) Jason Forsey, who is our sweeper, is also playing very good soccer, very smart coming out of the back and pushing us forward as well. Jason Mendoza (a senior forward) is very, very strong, has a very good shot and just has a nose for the goal, so we are counting on him to bring that every game and then we should be just fine.” Maciel also has two solid center mids in senior Jose Paredes and his younger brother Luis Paredes, who is a junior. The Grizzlies also return a pair of sophomores, forward Christian Chavez and midfielder Ricky Iturriaga, both of whom contributed to the team’s conference title run as freshmen last season. Another element to this season’s team Maciel likes is that he believes he has a deeper bench. “I think this year, we feel even a little better than when we did with last year’s team, although with last year’s team, we knew we were up to something,” Maciel said. “But this year, these guys are just playing good soccer and we are peaking right on time, so we are very excited about our boys group this year.” The Grizzlies will host the Fort Smith Invitational Friday and Saturday, with the girls games being played at Southside. Northside’s 7A-Central opener will be at home on March 13 against Bryant, and the Grizzlies play at home again two days later against Little Rock Central.

NHS COACH SEEKING TO CONTINUE SUCCESS

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 2/28/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford