It was a good season for Panther JV soccer.
In the program’s first year under varsity head coach Bryan Wilkinson, Franklin’s JV team turned over a new leaf, building a roster full of talented freshmen and sophomores. With their first winning season since 2022, they finished among the Mountain Eight Conference’s top teams.
“I had already seen some of their games because I always like going out to see the middle school, because of all the eighth graders coming into ninth grade,” said first-year JV boys head coach Juan Morales. Having led Franklin’s JV girls to an unbeaten campaign last spring, the longtime Panther assistant was asked to take over the JV boys, and hit the ground running.
“I always take a look at them because I know most of them are going to be with me, so I already had a pretty good idea as far as the ability and the talent that they have. They’ve been coached really well by coach Salvador [Vasquez] – he’s got most of them playing on his travel team, so I knew it was going to be a good team, it was just a matter of getting the chemistry and getting everybody to click and just finding the right position for everybody.”
Between their third straight conference title for Macon Middle School and a trip to the National Cup Southeast Semifinals with Macon United, the team’s incoming freshmen already had some pelts on the wall. During their first JV workouts this summer however, they ran into an unusual problem.
“Strength-wise they know how to play, but probably the biggest weakness was not having a striker,” said Morales. “Usually with the guys you always have at least seven of them that want to play striker, but this year it was completely different. This year we had maybe one, and even when I asked them, ‘We need a striker this year, so I’m going to take whoever wants to try out up front and see if you guys have what it takes,’ there were a couple – maybe two or three – that kind of gave it a try, but everybody else, they weren’t. Usually when you give guys an opportunity like that they jump at it real quick, but mostly, nobody wanted to do that.”
While most adolescent boys jump at the chance to hunt goals and glory, this year’s JV team had a more defensive, team-first mentality. A few weeks into the season however, everything fell into place.
“We kind of talked to [Javier Zárate] maybe about four or five games in because he’s a good all-around player. I could pretty much put him anywhere, but at practices I would see him score a bunch of goals and just kind of have that scoring instinct,” said Morales. “So then one game we were away at Smoky [Mountain] and I think we were tied 1-1, and I took him out because he was getting tired. He was playing midfield, and I asked him, ‘Hey, how do you feel about playing up front for me?’ He said, ‘I’ve never played [striker],’ and I said, ‘Play your game regularly, just stay up top. I don’t need you to drop in, just stay up top. If you get a ball, run at the goal, run at the defenders and take shots – that’s all I need you to do.’ And from there, it took him a minute to click because it was a new position for him, but he scored multiple hat tricks and back-to-back hat-tricks throughout the season, so he did really well.”
Tied 1-1 at Smoky in just their third match of the season, Morales’ decision to move Zárate forward paid off instantly, when the sophomore scored twice en route to a 4-1 win. Miles Caldwell also scored twice in that match, and went on to tie his fellow sophomore captain with 11 for the year. But while Caldwell and Zárate gave the team a scoring threat, the mid-season promotions of William Altamirano and Anthony Mora Martinez set the Panthers back.
“I was actually really surprised that they were with me at the beginning of the season, because they’re great players,” said Morales of losing his players to the varsity team in mid-September. “Willie is a great defender, he’s tall, he has the ability to head the ball, and he’s not afraid. … Anthony is just another one that always works hard – he gives 100% every single time. Losing both of them, they were crucial to my team, but the good thing was we had players on the squad that stepped up, and we kept playing well and we kept winning matches, so it just came down to people stepping up and getting the opportunity to play.”
Despite the loss of Altamirano and Mora Martinez, who went on to play key roles in the varsity squad’s starting 11, the JV Panthers barely skipped a beat. They finished the year with a 10-4-5 record including a 6-2-5 mark in the Mountain Eight, exemplifying the entire program’s upward trend.
“I do anticipate [losing key players to varsity] because I have a few sophomores on my team, but also, the guys coming up that are going to be freshmen next year can play, and in key spots as well,” said Morales. “I think Coach Bryan is going to look at a few spots as far as … a striker or two, so he might take those guys up there. But all around the program is in a great spot because we’re always getting great players coming from middle school and all these travel coaches are doing a great job with all these guys, so I’m never lacking in talent.”