With a new team and new coach, new expectations have arrived for the Farmersville boys’ soccer season.

The team is led by Farmersville head coach James Walker, who admits that he’s a little green to the game of soccer. An assistant coach on the football team, Walker stepped in on an emergency basis to replace the previous coach who resigned late in the summer. Since then, he’s learning the game and helping the kids grow on the field.

“We had a soccer coach hired and he left late in the year, so I volunteered to help out,” Walker said. “We have a staff that works on the tactics and we’re developing a plan to help these kids learn and prepare for the new season.”

While a coach without experience sounds like a tall task, Walker is eager to see the team on the field and see what the Farmers can do this season. He said the work ethic of a young team with just two seniors has been impressive, as kids have been working out nearly every day from the summer on to prepare for the season.

“It was an opportunity to become the head coach of a sport and grow the program,” Walker said. “There hasn’t been consistency in the soccer program over the last two years and hope to provide a little bit more of that. I have a good relationship with a lot of the kids from class and I hope to grow the program and get a lot of kids out to compete and have a chance to be successful this season. I’ve seen a lot of the kids come out on their own and not with coaches and they’re working hard, and they want to be good and be successful.”

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