The cold was ceasing, the sunshine began to break through, and eager athletes littered the field with ready attitudes and hardworking hearts. The varsity soccer team was no exception to the bunch, with a whopping 22 girls sprinting the field and getting in touches. The outlook for the 2020 season was pretty positive, and the senior leaders were ready to hit the ground running.
The 22 soccer girls included freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors and were a wonderfully cheerful group to start off the year. Last season, for the 2019 year, there were barely 13 girls on the team, leaving only 2 subs. With the numbers now skyrocketing to almost double, the team is overflowing. With not enough for two teams but too much for one, the plan was to do JV half games along with full varsity games and swing players. This way, maximum playtime would be available, and all would get to learn and grow their soccer skills.
Out of the bunch, 8 were seniors and included Kathryn Vanden Hoek, Madison Lawrence, Alexis Stack-Cloud, Zoe Krause, Mackenzie Marentette, Zoe Berken, Anijah Barringer, and Storm Baricko. Lawrence says, “the last year of soccer is the saddest because we are probably not going to play again like we do.” And now, this final hoorah has been cut short, nearly in half. The team felt that they were learning and growing every single day, and “we had a good connection as a team which made us stronger,” explained Lawrence. Vanden Hoek had very high expectations for the year, saying how “I didn’t necessarily think we were going to be district champs […], but I really thought we had a good group of hardworking and fun girls.”
Barringer was a first-year soccer player, and was so pumped for the season. She was a “die-hard track runner” and had previously never played Brentwood soccer since it is in the same season as track and field. But, it is her senior year, so she decided to go for soccer since this was her last chance. Barringer said she “had sooo much fun over there in a short period of time and learned so much.” Now that soccer isn’t in session, Barringer is pretty disappointed. She says, “I waited all my life to play and then boom, this happens. And I paid all that money for soccer gear just for it to be sitting in my closet now lol!” Despite the setback, Barringer is holding onto hope that it’s not over quite yet.
With no more soccer at this time, the seniors have still been trying to get in a few dribbles and passes here and there. Along with lots of Netflix, Vanden Hoek explains how “without soccer, I’ve mostly been talking to people about how I’m upset there is no soccer.” Not all is lost as athletic competitions are scheduled to start back up on April 29th of this year. This is tentative and may change, but as of the moment, positive wishes are keeping spirits high.
Hoping for the lockdown to be over soon, the seniors are itching to get back on the home field. As Vanden Hoek said, “we can still make the most of the time we have left.” Working twice as hard may be necessary to make up for what was lost, but it can be done with ladies as dedicated as these.
