Logan's Sanchez aims to hit new level of play

As a hot-shot freshman, Logan junior Edwin Sanchez scored 13 goals and soaked up the rays of the bright spotlight that shined on him. He must have felt like the BMOC as he frequently found his name in newspaper capsules and was repeatedly praised as an integral part of Logan's 3A runner-up team.

But just one little problem awaited him — Sanchez returned the following season as a sophomore, while the sensational midfielders that fed him most of those goals graduated.

As Logan coach Tod Martin succinctly put it, "Your fruit tree to pick off is gone."

Life was much different for Sanchez a season ago. But while he only scored eight goals as Logan again advanced to the 3A title game, the experience helped him become a much more complete soccer player.

Now a junior, the veteran hopes to take his game — not to mention his team — to another level. Sanchez said he hopes to match or better the number of goals he scored as a freshman while helping the Grizzlies get over the hump in the 3A state championship game.

But regardless of what number he actually puts up, Martin is just glad to have him on the field. The coach says his star forward made big strides between his freshman and sophomore seasons, even if the numbers don't bear that out.

"His freshman year was more (about) goals of opportunity, goals of run onto the ball and score," Martin said. "His sophomore year was more of finesse, breaking down defenses, breaking down his opponents, just more beautiful goals.

"That's a good way to describe (his improvement) — his game's gotten to be more beautiful as he's gone along."

According to Martin, one of Sanchez' greatest assets has been his outstanding work rate.

"He'll give you everything," Martin said.

That trait had to have helped during the first month of last season, when Sanchez had to work extremely hard to acclimatize to his new surroundings.

"His sophomore year, he's a marked man and all of the sudden he's not a secret and his supporting cast is gone," Martin said. "He went through some growing pains, which anybody would because you're used to being fed by these midfielders that should be playing collegiate soccer at this point.

"He had to grow up. He had to learn some different moves, learn how to get open more, become a better forward."