This former North Texas soccer power had no team last year. Now it’s making a comeback.

For three years, the girls soccer team at Kennedale strung together one of the best runs in Texas high school soccer history. That’s why it was hard to believe the school couldn’t even field a team in 2021.

Kennedale won back-to-back Class 4A titles in 2015 and 2016.

The Wildcats also reached the 4A Region 1 final in 2017.

During that three-year stretch, Kennedale posted a 74-5-2 record, never dropped a district match and had an overall goal differential of 343-50. But after averaging nearly 25 wins per season, the Wildcats didn’t hit the 20-win mark in 2018, 2019 or 2020.

Then the program didn’t have a team in 2021.

“It was a tough year. It was unfortunate. There were a couple of different circumstances that led to that,” said coach Patrick Hughes, who has been at Kennedale for three years. “We were missing some girls due to [the COVID shutdown], but a lot of it was just that we graduated so many seniors and we really didn’t have anyone other than one girl come up from the junior high.”

Even during the days of Michael Strange, Kennedale didn’t have a JV or freshman team.

“COVID affected every program in one way or another. For a small 4A school like Kennedale, our numbers have always been small, we’ve never carried a JV due to that fact,” said Strange, who coached those two state title teams. “So, losing 5-6 players could essentially put a program under the threshold.”

Playing for the boys

But not all the girls gave up on soccer last season.

Some played on the boys varsity team.

Krystal LaFollette, who has since graduated, Gina Olmos, Cassidy Hughes and Lauren McIntyre all played on the boys team.

“It was definitely more fast-paced, but I think it really helped me get better at soccer, especially physically,” said Olmos, a senior who is signed to play at Dallas Baptist University. “Getting bodied by boys, who are much stronger, I think helped. It’s quite a big difference coming back and playing with the girls, but it really helped a lot.”

LaFollette, Olmos and Hughes started while McIntyre came off the bench.

However, the team didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

“Honestly it was a lot of fun,” said Cassidy Hughes, who will play at the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas. “I really love having a girls team and sometimes I missed it. It was a lot different on the field. It’s a different game. It’s a lot faster and a lot more physical.

“Most of our girls team were seniors then so a lot of them graduated and with COVID and no school, no one really knew about the girls team. So even now a lot of the girls that we have haven’t really played before. Since a lot of them coming in haven’t played before, they weren’t going to come in on a year when they weren’t even going to school. So we just didn’t have enough girls to make a team.”

Olmos scored three goals and assisted on another as Kennedale beat Fort Worth Carter-Riverside 5-1 in the 4A Region 1 bi-district round. The Wildcats are 11-6-1 in their comeback season.

Kennedale will play Argyle in the area round at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pennington Field in Bedford.

“I’m really proud of these girls this year for the way that they’ve rebounded from that year. We have a lot of new girls out here that had never even touched a soccer ball up until Thanksgiving break, so I’m really proud of them,” said Hughes, who helped coach the boys team last season.

Family tradition

Olmos and McIntyre know something about Kennedale history.

Both are younger sisters of former Kennedale greats who wore the green and white.

Gina is the younger sister of Abby and Alondra Olmos, both who were on the state title teams. Gina is following their footsteps at DBU. McIntyre’s older sister, Eryka, was a freshman on the 2016 championship squad.

Eryka was one of the premier scorers in the area and went on to play at Missouri and Oklahoma State.

Lauren scored two goals against Carter-Riverside.

“They’re phenomenal players,” Patrick Hughes said about his three returners. “Cassidy Hughes does a great job on defense for us and locks it down. Lauren is really going to control the midfield and Gina is just a goal scorer and a workhorse up top.

“But more importantly they’re just incredible young women. They’re really, really good people as well as phenomenal soccer players.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM.