Southwestern Randolph's new soccer coach eyes playoffs despite loss of 13 seniors

ASHEBORO — There are 13 seniors who graduated from the Southwestern Randolph boys varsity soccer team which won the state 4-A championship a season ago. Those 13 graduates scored 130 of the 160 goals last season. Six of the Cougars’ top eight scorers from a year ago are no longer there.

After winning the state title, there’s little doubt opponents are going to circle the date of their game against the Cougars, who now have that proverbial bullseye on their backs. 

All that and first-year head coach Jeff Tyl still expects a successful season as the Cougars prepare for the 2026 high school soccer campaign. 

Winning a second straight state championship may be a little bit excessive when it comes to goals, but having a deep playoff run is certainly not as the Cougars embark on the season after finishing 27-1 overall.

“Our goals from last year to this year have to be re-evaluated,”  longtime assistant Tyl said about his first season as head coach at the varsity level. “They can’t be the same as they were last year. My expectation isn’t to challenge for a state championship, but to get to the third or fourth round. It depends on how fast we can hit stride.”

The Cougars had tryouts July 29 and had a few days of practice before heading to Newton-Conover last Saturday for a jamboree. They were then scheduled to scrimmage Asheboro on Wednesday before opening the season Aug. 10 at home against Randleman. 

The Cougars’ first five games will all be played at home.

“We talked about expectations and how the seniors only had one chance and the freshmen four chances,” Tyl said.

“They understand there will be targets on their back and everyone wants to beat the champions.”

With the graduation of Fernando Hernandez, who scored 41 goals last season and was named the most valuable player at the East-West Game two weeks ago, Chris Betancourt, who tallied 26 goals, and Aaron Avina, who had two assists in that East-West Game after scoring 23 goals in the Cougars’ championship season, most of the returning players will be asked to elevate their game.

Yael Rebollar-Ortiz is the leading scorer who is returning after netting 23 goals a year ago and Kevin Garcia is back after scoring 12.

“Kevin has played as a winger, but we’ll move him to the center-mid position,” Tyl said. “We went to the UNCG camp and he had more success in the mid-field position. We have to choose the position that best fits him.”

Gio Hernandez, the younger brother of Fernando, is back after scoring five goals in limited time and Griffin Hall, who scored five goals in seven games, will be asked to contribute.

“We’ve had to change our formations, people are playing in positions they haven’t played,” Tyl said. “Some of the guys who may not have seen a lot of action are going to have the opportunity to come in and play. 

“The biggest thing is on the defensive side. We lost every player from center-mids and back.”

The Cougars averaged a whopping 5.7 goals per game last year and Tyl said this year’s team can’t be expected to reach that lofty number. That means the new group of defenders and the goalie are going to have to shine from the very beginning.

That defense will be tested in the Cougars’ non-league schedule, which includes Randleman, Trinity, Carver, Wheatmore, Cummings, Page and two-time defending state champion Western Alamance, which finished 29-0 last year and 25-1 the year before when it defeated Asheboro High School for the state championship.

Tyl said the SWR jayvee program has been very strong in the past and with a very impressive freshmen class stepping onto the pitch for the first time at SWR, a freshman class Tyl coached in middle school, he said he’s excited and looking forward to what this team can accomplish.