This behind-the-scenes look at girls soccer from the player's perspective was written by Taylor W. and Seyi O. - thanks, ladies!
Disclaimer
We have been a part of the Saint John’s College High School JV soccer team for two weeks now. This is an overview of the past two weeks.
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| Coach Angelo leads the team onto the pitch. Photo: K. White |
The JV girls trained with Coach Angelo in the evenings from 6pm to 8pm. Coach Angelo put us through performance enhancing drills, such as those focusing on possession and running. He also worked with us on passing, communicating, shooting, and ball handling skills. He did a great job of being both serious and encouraging. His emphasis was on “doing everything as a team” whether it’s warming up or cleaning up the bleachers after practice. After these first two weeks we can already see improvements in all aspects of our playing.
Strength Training
We have trained with Next Level every morning from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. Coach Paragi has helped us with conditioning and teach us stretches to help prevent ACL tears. She also taught us that we need to work through the pain of certain exercises. She frequently told us “no pain, no gain”. Some of her tasks were difficult for us to accomplish (e.g. gassers, hip-flexor exercises, Indian runs), but we helped motivate each other and got through them.
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| Scrimmage action against B-CC, 8/23/10. Photo: K. White |
Scrimmages
During the past two weeks, we played two scrimmages against B-CC and Blair High Schools. Against B-CC, we tied 1-1 as Yoselyn scored in the final 40 seconds of the game. Our team did a great job of passing and communicating throughout the game. In the second scrimmage, both teams were evenly matched and played to the final whistle despite dark conditions. Blair scored in the 69th minute to win 1-0. Coach Angelo told us that we played an excellent game and liked our high energy levels and passing skills.
Reflections
All in all being on the SJC JV girls’ soccer team is a great experience. Not only did we tremendously improve our soccer skills but we made a great bond with the team. We also love to support the SJC varsity team at their games. Already the JV girls’ soccer team is showing their amazing skills. From our first day of tryouts to our continuing work with Next Level Training, and onto our first scrimmage against B-CC, we knew that this season would be one to remember.
