Tracy Tran

SPORTS THE SIDEKICK

2022 APRIL First half hopes crushed by Allen in second half surge

Torie Peck

Sports Editor

@torielpeck

McKINNEY - The stage was set. Same place, same stakes, one year later. Last night, the Coppell girls soccer team faced the Allen Eagles in the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs at McKinney ISD Stadium in a win-or-gohome matchup.

The Cowgirls stepped up to this challenge, ready to face its opponent.

But it wasn’t enough, the Cowgirls (15-5-2) season ended in the same fashion as last years bi-district match, and fell to the Eagles (18-2-3), 3-1, ending its season.

“[Allen’s] forwards are really good so we had to keep them at bay,” Coppell coach Fleur Benatar-Whitten said. “Scoring was hard for us. We had a couple of chances that we should have had but didn’t, [along with] finishing and recovering after our goal.”

The match was scoreless at the half. Knowing that the Eagles would likely switch up its play style, the Cowgirls adjusted.

“We knew they were going to change their system so we had to be ready to change if they changed and we adjusted,” Benatar said. “We had to keep people moving in and out. There was an ebb and flow to that [second] half, people were getting tired so we had to watch minutes. There were a lot of things going on.”

Within the first three minutes of the second half, Allen senior forward Taylor Spitzer put the first score on the board. Six minutes later, Coppell senior forward Reneta Vargas tied the game, capitalizing off a kick to the center of the net.

“[Vargas] went out right after the goal, that hurt us a bit and we didn’t know if she [was going to come back out],” Benatar said. “Overall, she’s the one that could make or break things in the final third. It hurt not having her there and disrupted our flow. We had to recover and keep filling gaps until we could figure out when she was going back on and what we were doing.”

The Cowgirls held the 1-1 tie until the 15:31 mark, when Spitzer braced and sent Allen to victory. Shortly thereafter, another Allen goal finished the Cowgirls season.

“We had a great season and next year is going to be good, we have a lot of work to do with other people,” Benatar said. “It’s going to be about how well they can work together and how well I can groom the next group.”

Coppell freshman defender Tabitha Sine looks for a pass from Coppell senior defender Michelle Pak. The Cowgirls season ended with a 3-2 loss in the Class 6A Region 1 bi-district playoffs.

Nandini Muresh

Coppell senior midfielder Pedro Perez-Pareka steals against Allen junior defender Jackson Donato at McKinney ISD Stadium on Friday. Coppell ended its season after losing, 2-0, to Allen in the Class 6A Region 1 bi-district playoffs. Angelina Liu

Anjali Krishna

Editor-In-Chief

@anjalikrishna_

McKINNEY – Coppell coach James Balcolm, through this momentous season for the Coppell boys soccer team, spoke often about the law of averages: his simple belief that with the number of opportunities the Cowboys were creating, they must eventually start to go in and average out their losing record.

Balcolm was proven correct; the Cowboys, after losing or tying its first eight district matches, at the bottom of District 6-6A standings, would take five consecutive wins to qualify for the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs against Allen at McKinney ISD Stadium on Friday.

However, the clock ran out for the Cowboys before the averages could balance themselves out against the Eagles. Coppell fell to the Eagles, 2-0, ending its season, 7-9-6.

“Loss is always painful but the last one just sucks the most,” Balcolm said. “It shows their resilience and their fight to stage this comeback, and go toe-to-toe with Allen in the first round of playoffs. This group overcame everything and they put themselves in a place to get a chance to beat the best team in the state.”

Coppell arrived with momentum it carried for the past five matches from its kickoff, creating opportunities play by play. The first of these was junior midfielder Ryder Brock’s shot to the goalpost with 23 remaining minutes in the first half. Though Brock’s shot hit the post without finding the net, the Cowboys were in control.

Yet Allen, District 5-6A champions with a fierce, young team, responded. While Coppell created opportunities, the Eagles created a magnificent play: a free kick from junior midfielder Dylan Berry went precisely to senior midfielder Diego Morales, then perfectly past Coppell senior goalkeeper Arath Valdez.

“Unfortunately, that goal was enough tonight,” Balcolm said. “We battled hard. I know the boys know that.”

Though the Eagles would keep this lead through the match, the score by no means reflected the continual Coppell fight. Allen’s defense struggled to fight off a set piece off corner kicks, while Allen goalkeeper Alec Setterberg defended against free kicks from Stone, sophomore midfielder Sam Stone and Coppell junior midfielder Preston Taylor.

“That first half was one of the best we ever played,” Taylor said. “We worked so hard down to the last minute.”

Still, the Cowboys’ earlier season plague followed them throughout the match, as each of the many opportunities went just wide, just over or safe into the arms of Setterberg. Only in the 80th minute was it over for the Cowboys, fighting through the end, as Allen junior midfielder Evan Pustejovsky sank a shot deep to the net. With most of the team on the opposite goal, worn-out by 80 minutes of back and forth, no Cowboys were able to return and defend.

“The ending was ruthless,” Coppell senior midfielder Pedro Peréz-Pareja said. “They were huge; we had nobody over six feet on our team, while they were all physical, their whole starting lineup over six foot.”

Allen advances to play Irving in the Class 6A Region I area playoffs, while the Cowboys end their season.

“All year, it started off that we couldn’t get the win, we couldn’t get the goal,” Balcom said. “We probably created over a 100 scoring opportunities and they’re not going in so eventually, they’ve somehow got to start going in. And a couple finally did. Law of averages started to work out. Same thing goes tonight. We’re hitting the post, all over the goal, and the keeper is making saves. Just didn’t work out with the clock tonight. But we knew we were doing everything right to beat the top team in the state tonight.”

Coach’s Box: Minick joins CHS for first year as head softball coach

Yaamini Jois

Staff Writer

@yjois12

After three years as an assistant coach at Colleyville Heritage, Ashley Minick came to Coppell in 2021 as head softball coach.

How is the season going with your new team?

They are gritty, and they’re coachable, which I love about them. I came in with a lot of different and new ideas, and they adapted to it. I appreciate the way I can help them get better by saying, “Hey, you did a great job doing this, this is how we can make it better,” because they buy into it. At their next game, they do what we’ve discussed. You never have to continue to push through - it’s more like ‘let’s try this’, and they do it.

As a coach, what key area do you focus on?

To be honest, it has nothing to do with skill. At the end of the day, we’ve worked on confidence. A big part of the game is going in there and knowing the mental part of the game. It’s important to have confidence in yourself, to trust in your skills and just play softball. We’ve been working really hard on saying that we can do it, and focusing on what we can control.

What are your plans for the future with this program?

We will focus on finding consistency in our plays and hits, and continuing to have confidence in ourselves. Each person is gaining more and more confidence, and I love that, so we want to continue to build off of each other.

@varshitha1128

I was born in America and have lived here my entire life. One thing that I have noticed over the years is how much Americans obsess over sports.

Sports are such an integral part of cultures across the world, not just in America. But for some reason they never really clicked with me. I never understood the hype around major sporting events such as the Super Bowl. It just appeared as football geeks, in other words commentators, using terminology that I did not care to learn about.

When people tell me that they support a particular team or an athlete, I would just think that’s good for them. Once again, I did not understand the fangirling nature of these kinds of people.

Why are people so connected to seasoned athletes they see on TV? What is so great about people being good at shooting baskets, swinging a bat or scoring goals? Is it really worth my time to watch these people?

However, in 2014 when my dad turned on the TV, the Sochi Winter Olympics came on. Nine-year-old me was instantly captivated. The vivid colors, the music, the presentation of athletes. The meaningful interviews, analysis that is not filled with sports jargon. The smiles of success, words of encouragement, tears of defeat.

As someone who was never a fan of idealized, iconic sports like football, soccer or cricket, the Olympics have a special kind of appeal to me.

People are captivated by emotions since they are naturally social and empathetic. While watching the first Olympics, I watched several ice skating performances from ice skaters around the world such as American figure skater Gracie Gold and Korean figure skater Yuna Kim.

Not only was I watching their performances, but I was learning their stories and noticed their facial expressions before, during and after their performances. I connected to the satisfaction of the skaters after finishing flawless performances as it resembles the same feeling as completing a taekwondo form with excellent power, snap and pop.

When athletes get injured, the injuries become significant obstacles to their performances. However, the way every single athlete faces injuries and overcomes them is unique. Learning how other people

The Winter Olympics took place in Beijing from Feb. 4-20. The Sidekick communications manager Varshitha Korrapolu writes about how much the Winter Olympics has influenced her since she started watching them in 2014. Avani Munji

handle challenges has enabled me to not be hard on myself and keep pushing through.

While I was watching the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, I learned that former U.S. Olympic snowboarder Shaun White experienced facial and lung injuries in October 2017 while training in New Zealand, resulting in 62 stitches. White was flown to a nearby hospital to be treated. Even though this was briefly before Olympic qualifications, which occurred in January 2018, White did not let this mitigate his performance and he was eligible for the Olympics. I learned that his love for his sport is what allowed him to go with the flow and take a risk.

More recently during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, I watched U.S. Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin not being able to finish the giant slalom and slalom events on TV.

I saw the frustration in her eyes when she fell on her side during the giant slalom. I saw even more frustration when Shiffrin was 10 gates through the slalom course and lost balance. Shiffrin sat beside the racing area and I saw her mom comforting her upset daughter. Even the most talented people experience hiccups in their fields of expertise. But ultimately, I learned that it is important to accept your emotions and situations and learn from them.

Athletes that are 17 years old, the same age as me, have shined as some of the youngest competitors in the Olympics. They serve as a role model to me. They show me that young people are just as capable of making their dreams a reality, just like then 17-yearold U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim won gold in the halfpipe event at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Even though I don’t understand all the sports lingo that the journalists and commentators use, the Olympic experience is a good one. Watching the Olympics in person is next on my bucket list.

Hill takes charge of boys track program

Saniya Koppikar

Staff Writer

@SaniyaKoppikar

A coach at Coppell High School since 2018, Eric Hill has recently been promoted to interim head boys track coach following coach Karl Pointer’s departure to Judson ISD. Having been a multi-sport athlete in his high school career and coached at numerous high schools in Dallas-Fort Worth, including Carrollton Ranchview, Carrollton R.L. Turner, Grapevine, and Dallas Bishop Lynch, Hill is bringing dedication and experience to the role.

How did you get into track and field?

When I went to high school, basketball, baseball, football and track were our four big sports, so I did all of them. I started coaching at the middle school level, and when I got to working at the high school level I became a head track coach.

What has the transition been like in the track and field department?

It’s been pretty seamless. Former Coppell assistant head football coach and head track coach Pointer and Former Coppell head cross country and girls’ track and field coach Benton, the job that they did with this program prior to when I assumed this role was remarkable. It was a well-oiled machine that pretty much ran itself. My job as head boys track coach is just to not steer it off the road, to keep it going in the direction it had been going. I have my own spin, my own take and my own experiences that I like to bring in as well. We’ve added a little bit of my personality and my coaching style to the mix, but by and large the program itself has transitioned very nicely.

What drew you to CHS?

I’ve always had an eye on CHS from a distance. While working with other districts and competing against this school, I was always impressed with the student athletes here. I was impressed with the backing the community gave the school. It was always a place that I felt like if I had the opportunity to work at, I would take it. When that opportunity came up in 2018, I took it.

What is your primary mission as a coach at CHS with your athletes?

It’s the primary mission of all the coaches here at CHS, so it’s going to sound cliche, but it’s true. We want to build lifelong relationships with these kids and give them an opportunity to go on, if they want to continue with the sport. The other part of that is to give them the tools that they need to be good people and good young men, and then further on in life good husbands and good fathers. My mission is just to make sure that when they leave this program, they have an opportunity to not only be great people but be successful with whatever they want to do in life.