Saints Men’s Soccer unveils 2023 roster.
Seward County's first ever soccer game is two weeks away and Head Coach Jaime Beltran has announced his inaugural roster for the 2023 season with 39 athletes from nine different countries.
Liberal natives will see three familiar faces on the Saints inaugural soccer team with local products Emmanuel Ortuno, Edgar Moreno, and Erich Ortiz who were all members of the men's soccer team at Liberal High School right down the road. They will be three of only eight players joining the Saints from within the United States. Christian Gomez (Hugoton, Kansas), Mateo Molina (Odenville, Alabama), Francisco Nava Gomez (El Paso, Texas), Norbert Msimbi and Useni Mmunga (Kansas City, Missouri) round out the U.S. products that join the Saints for the 2023 season.
The remaining 32 athletes join Seward County's inaugural men's soccer program from nine other countries across the globe. Ashton Miller, Freddie Walker, Ellis Stokes, Zain Beg, Bruce Drinkwater, Ryan Shields, Bruno Pires, Nate Kelly, and Kyle Kerr-Miller all come from different parts of the United Kingdom while Oriol Farre Sanchez and Javier Ruchelli Alvarez travel from Spain. Rodrigo Valladao, Mateus Ribeiro, Matheus Ambrozio, Bruno Mestres, and Tales Ruiz all come from Brazil and are joined by fellow South Americans Leandro Suarez, Carlos Guerrero, Leonardo Anez, and Luis Arnez from Bolivia as well as Santiago Gonzalez Uribe, Juan Lopera, Julian Garcia, and Santiago Cocoma from Colombia. Jose Rojas, Mathyas Hernandez Bonilla, and Juan Pablo Murillo Pazos from Costa Rica join Maceo Marriott (Nottingham), and Josh Rimmer (Western Australia) to complete the Saint's 2023 Men's Soccer roster.
"Being a first-year program, we know there's going to be some challenges and some growing pains, but I feel like we are further ahead than I expected us to be at this point when we first put this group together," said Beltran. "We have some potentially really good players from different areas with the biggest challenge being getting all these new players who have never played together to mesh in a short amount of time. We are really excited about all of our international and local players, and I think we have the makeup of an excellent team to have a great season".
The Saints will take on Pratt in their first ever game on August 19th at 4:00 p.m. in Pratt, Kansas, followed by their first home game on August 23rd at 8:00 p.m. against Kansas City Kansas.