MATTAWA — Wahluke High School boys soccer head coach Arthur de Victoria said they held out hope after closures began that they might still be able to salvage the spring season. Once the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, or WIAA, made the cancellation official, de Victoria said delivering the news to his students was tough.

“It was pretty difficult for our kids, it was difficult for our coaching staff,” de Victoria said. “This year, we looked really, really good. This team, the seniors that were graduating had been to state twice as freshmen and sophomores.”

Last year’s team dealt with the difficulty of the passing of a friend and teammate as they entered the postseason, impacting the Warriors deeply on and off the field, de Victoria said. This year, that chance at a rebound was taken away.

De Victoria said the coaching staff just reinforced to their players to remain focused on the future. Five Warriors will continue playing at the next level, de Victoria said.

“That’s good they’re going to get that, but they’re not getting what they expected,” he said. “A good group of this team has older brothers that had been to state, and won state. For them to not get that final shot at getting that ring hurt really bad for a lot of them. It was really difficult for a lot of them.”

De Victoria said they’ve been sending out training regimens for the players to work on while the team is unable to meet. Team goals and strategies were prepared as well in case a chance to practice came up, de Victoria said.

Statewide, de Victoria said it’s going to be a challenge with everyone trying to catch up from being a year behind.

“We have some of our kids that play club ball,” de Victoria said. “Well, club’s done, so they’re going to miss club for a year. Then we have the kids that only play for us. They’re losing that year.”

While de Victoria said he and the rest of his staff can help students work on their individual skills, it’s difficult to work on the team skills without being able to meet as a whole.

De Victoria said they’ve discussed using virtual meeting spaces to get players together, but the Wahluke coach said he isn’t sure it would be the best strategy for his group.

De Victoria said he’s still struggling to figure out what the positives are that might come from the current situation. Without a season, de Victoria said he has seniors who were still looking for a chance at the next level that won’t have that film to show prospective coaches.

“They can do individual skill videos, but is that adequate of what a student is capable of on a full field with 22 players?” de Victoria asked.

De Victoria said his seniors felt they had a great shot at making this their year to win a state championship.

“I know a lot of teams feel that way, but this team knows the tournament, they know what they had to do,” de Victoria said. “They’re a year faster, stronger, better. The couple of weeks we were able to practice, we looked spot on. And that’s just gone.”

De Victoria said they’ll continue to look for ways to support their seniors in the coming weeks. For now, de Victoria said, he’s just trying to help get his students ready for the next stage of their soccer careers.