Diablos Season ends in disappointment

In spite of the best laid plans and intentions, the 2022 Diablos season ended in disappointing fashion on Saturday night at the hands of the Lubbock Matadors. The Championship hangover reared its ugly head, and when coupled with significant roster turnover due to players turning professional, injuries, collegiate duties calling players away unexpectedly, it presented a challenge the this years squad wasn’t quite up to overcoming. Yet, the Diablos had it all to play for in the final weeks of the season, positioning themselves near the top of the table the entire season, and needing a draw or win in the final road game to clinch a spot in the Lone Star Conference Playoffs.

For the first time in club history our season comes to an end with the final regularly scheduled game, after a run of Lone Star Conference Playoffs in 2019, Roja League Winners and Runner-Ups in Summer of 2020, Roja league Champions in Winter of 2020/2021, and our historic 2021 NPSL National Championship run.

We want to thank all of our dedicated sponsors and staff for their tireless effort and support in what was an awesome season and return to action in beautiful UNT Soccer and Track Stadium, and saw the Diablos etch their name in US Soccer History with the hosting of their 2022 US Open Cup Match, as well as their Runner Ups finish in the Hank Steinbrecher Cup, better wise known as USASA Amateur National Championship.

We want to thank head coach Ramon Raya for his steady leadership and direction to unprecedented club heights. We love you Ramon, we do, Ramon, we love you. We also want to thank assistant coach Matt Pitcock for his hard work and dedication to supporting Ramon and our entire roster of players.

We want to thank every player that came to open tryouts, that made the training pool but never suited up, who dropped in and trained with us while they were in town for the summer, and to anyone who was a part of our 2022 Diablos team. To the guys who showed up and committed themselves, I’m sorry we came up short, but it only hurts this much to lose, when you love the game so much. I love each and every one of you like a son, and in the immortal words inscribed in the National Championship ring I wear with such heart filled pride: Siempre Diablos.

Our family is not perfect. We do not always meet our own expectations, on the field and off of it.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt