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It was 37 degrees, with girls cheering in blankets from the sidelines, but they didn’t just walk away with frozen fingers. They walked away with a win from an impossible score in overtime.
“It was freezing,” said Aspen Clayton, a team captain. “We won in overtime barely, but it was super cold.”
The girl’s soccer team has made improvements this year, and despite a challenging season, they feel good about the growth they’ve experienced.
“In a technical sense, they’ve completely changed to a whole other team,” said head coach Julio Tapia. “They have held their formations a lot better and worked together as a team, especially against very tough opponents.”
This year the team has a new coach who has helped them more in many ways. He has played and coached before, so he knows the processes.
“I’m a new old coach,” said Tapia. “I coached the boys for a long, long time, and coming back and coaching the girls has been challenging. It’s different. I really enjoy it.”
Tapia is observant and knows how to improve his team and his players as individuals.
“He is really good at understanding everyone’s point of view and knows where you’re at in your head,” said sophomore Lydia Ence. “If you’re having a bad day he can tell, and he can talk you out of it and help you. It’s really nice.”
Even when they are in the middle of playing games he helps them learn what soccer is about and why they are there.
“He always tells me to ‘get out of your own head’ and ‘just play soccer’ and so he just helps me to be able to get back in there and be better,” said Clayton.
Tapia doesn’t expect them to be perfect but he knows what they are capable of. This year he has set a goal for the team to make it to state. At the moment their record is 5-7 and he seems very confident that they will make it to state and achieve their goal.
“My one and only goal was from the very start, and still is, to go all the way to the finals at state,” said Tapia. “It never was to reach anything big in region, but I feel like this team has the capability of being state champions.”
A lot of their team is made up of freshmen. They are very good players and know how to work together. The highest scorer on the team is a freshman, Adelay Stavros, with six goals.
“I feel like I’ve worked hard to be here and be in varsity but it’s been really fun,” said Stavros. “It’s definitely hard though because there are a lot bigger girls than you so you get pushed around.”
On their team, they have key players who help and guide the team, including the team captains. The team captains have scored a lot of goals for their team; Aspen Clayton has made the second-most on the team with five goals and Siri Huntington has the third most with four goals.
“I want to be a friend to everybody and be that person that they can lean on if they are struggling, with something with soccer or outside of soccer with school, friends, or anything, just being that person for them to talk to,” said Clayton.
The goalie, Eryn Briggs, has also been a crucial part of the team. Briggs has stopped 186 goals this season.
“I have to have faith that I can do it and be confident knowing everyone is watching me,” Briggs said.
Their last game was against Manti where they took a loss with a score of 0-4. Although it was difficult, they will keep striving to do better and win next time.
Though they have had so much improvement from last year and will continue to get better, the team would love more support.
“I would like [for] more people to come out and support us, get a bigger crowd, and get more cheers coming,” said Tapia. “Especially if we make it to state, I would like to see a very big group support.”
If they make it to state the season will end on October 24 – the state finals.
