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There are several reasons for the Coyotes’ turnaround, but none have been bigger than sophomore sensation Julio Arjona. This summer, the defensive midfielder decided to transfer from Bullis, whose Interstate Athletic Conference-winning team he started on a year ago. And with his addition, Clarksburg went from up-and-comers to contenders, almost overnight.

‘‘One day last year, when he was at Bullis, I just asked him out of the blue — I was like you should come play with us for one of our games,” said Peabo Doue, one of Arjona’s best friends and teammates with the Coyotes. ‘‘So he just ended up talking with Coach Spoales, and he just liked the team.”

And they like him. Aside from his statistical impact, like the goal and three assists he registered against St. John’s, Arjona has brought leadership belying the fact that it’s just his second year of varsity soccer. In fact, though knew to the squad, he was named one of three team captains before the season started.

This all was of no surprise to Spoales, the former Paint Branch head coach, who has known about Arjona from the day he took the job at Clarksburg over a year ago. A figure in the Damascus Soccer Program, Spoales had seen the youngster show promise well before he reached high school.

Arjona had been on the Potomac Cougars club team at the time, and already was a Maryland Olympic Developmental Program prospect by the time he was entering the ninth grade. The private schools came calling, and he decided to choose Bullis in Potomac over closer-to-home Clarksburg to get a taste of the top competition in the area.

When he decided to join the Coyotes this summer, Spoales knew he was getting a special talent.

‘‘Obviously, with a player of his talent, we’re just lucky to have him, and his attitude has been infectious,” Spoales said. ‘‘Actually, the day I got this job, I was on the phone with his father to see if he made any decisions about which school Julio was going to — he said he appreciated the phone call but Bullis had been after him since sixth grade, so he was going to go there. Bullis is a great school, but some of his best friends are on our team, so I told his father that if he had [second thoughts], just make sure to give me a call.

‘‘He had said in the middle of last year, that with all the traveling for his club teams, he might be coming back to Clarksburg, so we always kept a line of communication. Then, I found out in about mid-July that Bullis’s coach [George Moore] had left and that he was coming.”

Indeed, Arjona’s wealth of club experience has molded him into a confident, mature 15-year-old. He’s a Region 1 ODP Player who also was selected to the U-16, D.C. United Academy club team.

He and Duoe are teammates with the United, and have played on various club teams together since they were 10 years old. The two have already linked up often, with Arjona leading the team in assists and Doue leading in goals, with four in just two games.

In fact, while he knew several of the Coyotes before becoming one this summer, he was caught off guard how skilled they were.

‘‘To be honest, I didn’t think we’d be this good,” said Arjona. ‘‘I was a little surprised at the potential we had. And actually, I’ve seen that there’s not that much of a difference between here and [the IAC]. They recruit players for private schools but there are all these high-school kids I’ve never heard of that are talented.”

Though the Coyotes are talented, the one thing they didn’t have was a track record of success. But Arjona was part of a 17-win Bulldog team a year ago, and has helped instill an expectation of success into an admittedly young team, as evidenced by the 7-1-1 record it compiled in the preseason. With him, along with Doue and third tri-captain midfielder Mike Virga, Clarksburg could very well be the surprise of the 2007 season in Montgomery County.

‘‘The heart of this team is so large,” said Arjona. ‘‘With the way a lot of the guys have stepped up, we can be really good.”