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Cimarron call-up has tricks up sleeve

Cimarron-Memorial's Arturo Bahena admits he didn't have the best tryout for the boys soccer team this season, but the junior still was a little surprised when longtime coach Mark Bailey cut him from the varsity team.

"I was getting too nervous with the ball," Bahena said of the tryout. "I knew the coach was watching, and I would just mess up. I had a lot of pressure on me. It was frustrating. I knew in my mind I was better than that, but it didn't show."

Bahena never argued with the decision, though, and received another opportunity when junior varsity coach Joey Costello asked Bailey if he could keep him for his team.

Bahena appreciatively took Costello's offer and worked tirelessly the first two months of the season so he could eventually earn a call-up. His moment finally came last week with the team mired in a season-long scoring drought.

The outcome: two hat tricks in his first two games.

"I knew I had to try my best to stay on the team," Bahena said. "I was really pressured when I first started, but as soon as I scored, a weight was lifted off my chest. After that, I was like, 'If I can score one, I can score more.'"

Bahena scored three goals in the first half in a 4-0 win at Desert Oasis and followed with another hat trick in a 5-0 win against Legacy.

"My (athletic director) teased me about being a terrible judge of talent," said Bailey, laughing. "That was a pretty great week. … It's not like we were playing the armpit teams. I don't think you could've had a better start."

Bahena, who scored 10 goals in eight JV games to open the season, began practicing with the varsity a week before his debut, but didn't get his jersey until a day before the Desert Oasis game.

Coincidentally, he was given No. 3, a defender's number.

Before Bahena's arrival, Cimarron — the fourth-ranked team in Southern Nevada — had scored just one goal in six of its previous seven games and never scored more than three goals in its first 13 matches.

The Spartans (9-3-4) were in desperate need of a spark, and Bailey and Costello agreed it was time for Bahena to move up.

"We weren't scoring, and we were tying team after team," Bailey said. "This kid has more goals than some of these kids I thought would have more goals than shots. …

"(In tryouts) we were playing a lot of small field, small confines, and he just isn't as good in those. We never really saw him in the open field because it's not how we run tryouts."

After four varsity games, Bahena is second on the team with seven goals and has helped take the pressure off leading scorer Dresdan Quackenbush (nine goals). In the four wins, Cimarron has outscored its opponents 16-3.

"He got the stereotype that he wouldn't be as good or wouldn't be as helpful," Quackenbush said. "So when he came out strong, everyone was surprised. Now they trust him and there's less pressure. … He's hardworking; he doesn't give up; he's really devoted. It's good that he stayed because he's more a part of the team as anybody else."

Bailey said it took some time for his players to warm up to a JV kid being inserted into the starting lineup.

"There were definitely some guys that were kind of like, 'Why are you doing this?'" Bailey said. "They weren't saying it, but it was in their body language."

That all went away after Bahena's movie-like debut. After he completed his second hat trick in the final minute of the Legacy game, Bahena's teammates began jumping, pouring water and lifting him up in jubilation.

"The first game I scored the three, I had the biggest feeling of satisfaction," Bahena said. "I felt accomplished, and it reminded me that my hard work paid off."

Bahena said at times it was tough playing JV as an upperclassman, but he's glad he stuck it out because nothing would have happened if he quit the sport entirely.

"I was pretty sad, especially before the games," he said. "I would look at the other team, and they were all small. I would be like, 'This kind of feels wrong, but I'm still going to try my best and hopefully I get bumped up.' And that's exactly what happened."

Bahena hopes his momentous week serves as a valuable lesson to those who have considered giving up.

He remains grateful for the JV team and Costello for giving him a chance to succeed.

"It was a relief that I didn't get cut from both teams," he said.

Contact reporter Ashton Ferguson at aferguson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430. Follow him on Twitter: @af_ferguson

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