Strong Leaders Win Games

Over the past years, female soccer has become more and more popular around the world. Ever since the former “Women’s World Cup,” a lot more girls have been fascinated by the sport. Well I was lucky enough to get into soccer from a young age and manage to get far with my soccer career, including my current CVHS high school season, which I think has gotten better with time.

I have been playing soccer since I was five years old, and once I got to third grade, I knew I wanted to take it more seriously. Throughout the years, I managed to get to higher levels in the competitive soccer ranks and have since realized that much of that is due to leaders on my teams.

Competitive soccer typically happens from spring time all the way to fall. So during the winter time, a lot of girls play high school soccer, including me. I was lucky enough to make the CVHS girls varsity soccer team for the 2023-2024 season. 

Currently, I’ve been having a good season with the team and I think we are starting to come together and bond more which overall helps us play better. 

I believe that team bonding and our strong captains are one reason for our success. The three captains we have are: Maddelyn Carrington, Subhi Karki, and Kiana Ayllon. As captains, they help with drills, communication, and organization. They have created a tight community as well as pushed us to strive to be better. 

In the beginning of the season in our non-league games, we had only just started to practice with one another, which is why I believe we did not play to our fullest potential against teams we could’ve beat. Nevertheless, once we started to play and practice more, we started to understand one another as more than just players but as teammates.

 This had resulted in wins in the league against top level high schools such as Piedmont, Berkeley, and Bishop O’Dowd. 

Along with having strong leaders on the field, I believe that we have strong leadership off the fields with our coaches. In our team talks during halftime, our coaches mention how we are managing to tire out the defenders, which is thanks to the conditioning and skills we have learned from our co-coaches, Rachel Lunt and Kezia Yifru. 

Without their help, I still think that we would be at a level that would not be ideal for the current season. So I am thankful that we have put in time to make the team better. Yet, even though we have gotten better, I still expect us to improve with time and support from coaches and captains.