Ali’s optimistic start to the soccer season

Tryouts Week:

I made the varsity team this year, my final year as a part of CVHS’s soccer program. The squad looks really strong this year from what I can see throughout the week of tryouts and our new coaching staff are holding highly ambitious goals for us., which I plan on achieving. More than ninety players came to tryout and only about forty were let into the program, hopefully signifying the beginning of a successful soccer program at CVHS. I plan to end my final year here with a bang though. My goals are to make it far throughout NCS and to also win the league above our rivals Bishop O’Dowd. Our first game is soon and I’m eager to see if we as a squad can fulfill my goals this season.

Tuesday, 11/30:

Our first game of our highly-anticipated season was nerve-racking. Ever since my freshman year in the soccer program, I’ve been waiting keenly for my senior season, with the hopes that we will win league or even NCS and today was our first scrimmage of the season against Monte Vista. Though we lost, we fought much harder than I expected against one of the best teams in NCS. I really have a positive outlook for the rest of the season after this game. Hopefully we can continue this run of form going into the league.

Wednesday, 12/8:

Three tough games have passed since our first match. Another three losses. Our whole team was discouraged with our subpar start to the season and today we had another game at San Lorenzo. Considering San Lorenzo were supposedly one of the weaker teams we were meant to play, we had high hopes going into this game, which we followed through on. We finally grabbed our first win. Hopefully this signifies the turning point of our season.

Tuesday, 12/14:

After another two losses at the hands of Berkeley and Granada, our motivation after the San Lorenzo game had quickly deteriorated. Two games which we lost in the last few seconds of the game. Two games that could’ve easily gone our way had we limited our mistakes. Today we had an away game at Heritage high school, which was quite the drive. Driven to win after the two unanticipated losses, we prevailed with a 2-0 win.

Saturday, 12/18:

Today was a symbolic day. Today marked the first day of a much-needed winter break but also an incredible win both mentally and on the scoresheet for us Trojans. We played the number one ranked team in NCS, Richmond High, and triumphed with a 1-0 win. Despite our losing record, we are now in a position where we might potentially qualify for NCS, a goal I’ve had since freshman year. Today was a great day,

Tuesday, 1/18:

Our last game was last month. We hadn’t practiced in around a month as well considering the COVID cases we had within our team. Despite our lack of training and practice, we managed to scrape away a win against Piedmont. I think we have finally developed a solid chemistry as a team, enhancing our skills on the field. I really hope COVID doesn’t screw up the rest of the season for us, especially since this is my last year. I’m looking forward to playing more games and continuing our streak.