Chase The Goals Girls soccer tries to match last year’s legacy

Damo Kouakou | Reporter

After finishing the previous season with 18 victories, four defeats, and four ties, and winning district, the girls’ Soccer season ended in a loss going into Round four. Their main challenge will be filling in the spots that last year’s seniors filled, but with the majority of the team being young this year, they have high hopes for their potential of having another great season.

“This year we’re a younger team,” senior Amanda Thai said. “But, we have the heart and the drive to outdo any other teams in our district.”

Results are good when there is communication and chemistry among the players. In order to decrease the likelihood of an opponent scoring, soccer is all about controlling and protecting the area between the players and the central defenders. Coach Kevin McKinley encourages his players to coordinate and interact with each other to keep their chemistry intact by doing canned food drives and hosting team dinners before the game.

“It’s very important for us to stay connected,” junior Mina Derder said. “So, if one person gets back, the other person will cover for them, if not then we will not move forward as a team offensively and defensively.”

With a long season of games, practice makes perfect. The team works on their stamina, formations, and tactics during the preseason, in order to make fewer mistakes and produce their desired results

“Our training practice is pretty intense,” Thai said. “There’s a lot of conditioning and some technical drills and just working with each other as a team.”

Each player must influence the other both on and off the field in order for the team to be on the same page. This is achieved with help of captains, who are responsible for keeping the squad on the course when their attention and focus wander.

“I definitely lead by example,” Thai said. “I like to be vocal on the field by telling people what we expect and what we demand of them and just pushing and encouraging them”

Despite only coaching the girls’ Soccer program for two years now, McKinley has already won a district championship last year and gone far in playoffs. He has shown great progress with the team throughout the seasons even with the players.

“It’s been great, the girls work their tails off every chance they get,” McKinley said. “It’s a great change from coaching football, but there’s been no complaints whatsoever. I really enjoyed it.”

Having had great success in the past, there are many new players to fill in new spots to continue this pattern by helping the team using their substitutions to keep the team refreshed.

“Last year was a different team, this year is a new team, which we have to continue to get better every day,” McKinley said. “Effort, working hard, and see if we can continue to make the runs like the teams have before here in the past.”

To keep the players from making mistakes, the coaches watch the film and figure out how they can get better. By making sure that they don’t make those same mistakes the next time they play, and so they can improve to build and make their program good for a really long time.

“Just giving effort fixes a lot of things, which sets [apart] good teams from great teams,” McKinley said. “Just got to find a way to get better and continue to maintain the Hawk tradition.”