Harlingen South head coach Debra Galvan summarized what Alexis Fonseca and twin sister Aliyah brought to the Hawks’ soccer team this past season.
“They just make things happen,” the first-year South head coach said. “They’re fast and smart, and we were able to use them in so many ways last year.”
Alexis scored 17 goals while playing mostly forward, but sometimes she moved to the midfield. Her blazing speed with or without the ball, ball control and the lungs of a cross country runner who never stopped running made her extremely dangerous.
Alexis Fonseca is The Brownsville Herald/Valley Morning Star All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Her sister captured the all-area defensive player nod (see her story inside). Both were juniors and return for one more season.
“There were a lot of ups last year — it was a very good season for us,” she said. “The downs were probably injuries, we had quite a few.”
Alexis strained her calf early in the season but returned. Still it nagged at times, especially at season’s end.
The Hawks also faced the unknown, competing against many new teams after dropping to Class 5A.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “We just decided to go in hard and did our best, and the season was a good one.”
Moving around from forward to center mid carried different tasks that Aliyah easily adjusted to. She said the biggest similarities were that both positions were offensive. The biggest difference came with awareness.
“You need to be aware of everything around you at all times in the midfield,” she said. “As a forward you just focus on what’s in front of you.”
At times, the twins’ magical connection showed off. During one match, the Hawks’ opponent had a goal kick that was retrieved by South and passed to Alexis, who was rocketing down the sideline.
“I drove it deep and crossed it, and she one-touched it to score. That was a beautiful thing,” she said. “I love playing with her — we’ve always been with each other, we know what each other likes and have good chemistry. It’s just cool to be on the same team.”
Last season, Alexis said there was more pressure being a co-captain along with Aliyah. She said the biggest thing was to bring up the team if anything happened, then added that luckily nothing really happened.
Now she and Aliyah are both preparing for the upcoming cross country season and Alexis said she is also working on some areas for next soccer season as teams look to replace the Hawks from the top of the District 32-5A mountain.
“I think I was faster last year and communicated better,” Alexis said. “But I want to get faster, communicate more and work on making my one-touches better. That’s so important for everything, improving that would be a good thing to do. If it’s a good one-touch, I can start fast right away.”
