Although football largely dominates high school sports participation, more and more students are playing soccer and developing excellent skills that will prepare the team to perform at its best each season.
With 15 games played, a victory and a draw, the YC boys soccer team has ended their season. Most of the players think this season was entertaining and new additions to the team both on the field and off.
The soccer team battled the inexperience of the players that were just starting their soccer journey for the first time ever this year. These players were thrown into the deep end with the expectation that they are able to compete at the varsity level.
Through this adversity, these players have stayed dedicated to the sport and more importantly to the team. These players fought hard and continued to improve week by week to be able to compete with the opposing teams. Caleb Portesi started playing soccer when he was five years old and Mason Bartlett started two years ago.
One of the best anecdotes of this season from Portesi was, “My favorite memory is when Flores got into a fight on the field. I also enjoyed trying to speak Spanish to Javi and he would call me dumb because my Spanish is really bad,” he said.
In the other half we also have Bartlett’s opinion, “I am gonna miss Javier and I wish he could stay here,” he said.
This soccer team is led by three coaches: the head coach Jon Briggs, Mark Prine and Michael Elliott, who are directing the Varsity team that plays in the 3A/2A/1A high school league, since it is a small school.
Some of the players were inspired to play soccer through soccer idols. “I was inspired to play in elementary school when I first saw the goat Messi win the World Cup,” Portesi said.
Other players were simply invited from friends at the school. “Caleb encouraged me to join the team, so I did,” Bartlett said.
