Senior women’s soccer players kickoff preseason

Sam Klein Podcast Editor

Preseason for the 2023 spring sports has begun, one of those sports being women’s soccer.

Last year during the 2022 season the women’s soccer team made it all the way to District finals and came out as District champions in a stalemate match that in the end resulted in a score of 1-0.

Last year’s success left the women’s team’s seniors with excitement for their senior season.

The seniors leading the team are Bailey Allen, Vivian Burke, Gretchen Daves, Tori Gray and Emma Storck.

Allen reflects on the start of her senior season. “I’m really excited. I’ve been waiting on this moment for a really long time as I’ve grown up on a soccer field with my dad, who is a past coach of the soccer team, so I’m super excited to go into it with some of my best friends, and preseason’s been going super well, so I’m really excited for hopefully a lot of wins this season.”

Storck is also optimistic for the season. “I’m super super excited. I’m hoping to stay healthy this season and hopefully then we’ll make it past districts and through State Quarter Finals.”

Gray expressed some mixed feelings going into her senior season. “I am excited, but I’m also kind of sad because I know that it’s going to go by really fast.”

Preseason has already begun for the women’s soccer team. The team, mostly the seniors, has been hosting training sessions to begin preparing starting in January, being in the gym twice a week with coaches as well as working on foot skills, according to Storck.

The preseason is a good look into what the team will look like and how they will play together. Daves explained how the team and preseason are looking so far. “Good. I’d say that there’s a lot of good underclassmen coming in, um, including the freshman and sophomores, and yeah I think like there will be good chemistry because of how close the grade levels are with each other.”

Gray talked more about what the preseason looks like. “I’m really excited. We’ve been having open gyms, and the potential for the team is really good, so I’m really excited to see what we can do, and I see a lot of potential in the younger players.”

Allen said with the numbers of people showing up, the season is looking really promising so far.

Of the five seniors, three of them plan to play college soccer. Allen will play at Truman State University this fall, Burke will play at Austin Peay State University, and Storck will play at Wilmington College.

Daves plans to continue playing soccer at some level, and Gray hopes to play select through college.

The women’s first game will take place on Selma Field on March 28, against Eureka.