With three Senior players already signed to play at the collegiate level, this season is sure to be successful.
We sat down with Girls Soccer Head Coach Lauren Denning to learn more about how this team is ready to tackle their season.
Read the Q&A below to learn more:
Q: Tell us about your upcoming season. What are you and the team expecting?
A: This has been a hard season to “expect” anything. We’ve been taking a "one day or one week at a time" approach so far. We are grateful for every day we get to meet together and are working each day to make sure we get better. We know this season will look different than other ones that we have had. We’re all about controlling what we can control, so we are going to make the choice to change and grow, we’re going to challenge ourselves and our teammates to get better, and we’re going to chase after that every day. If we can do that, the results will come.
Q: What have you all been doing to prepare for the season?
A: We are lucky that we get the fall semester to really come together and get to know each other, so we always want to take advantage of that time and I think we have done great job of that this year. We have a lot of new faces, but a lot of strong returning players that have taken responsibility to show the new girls what we do and who we are. We came up with core values and our theme for the year, and have really focused a lot on getting better individually on a daily basis. We also just got to have a lot of fun. We have done Soccer Olympics, Soccer Survivor, Halloween relay races, and are just using our time to build those relationships off the field that are hopefully going to allow us to get the best out of ourselves and each other throughout the season.
Q: How hard was it last season when you got shut down? Are students ready to tackle this year even stronger?
A: I think more than anything, it just gives a better appreciation to everyone that experienced that last year. It was hard to see the girls not get to end their season properly since we had just clinched the District title and our playoff spot. It was obviously disappointing, but I hope the girls have seen soccer this year as a constant as much as possible in this crazy time. I think it’s hard for any of us to appreciate the day in and day out of something when we’re in the middle of it, but I’ve been really proud of the girls so far and how they have embraced all the work while still appreciating the opportunity to play this year.
Denning explained why she is ready for the season to begin, "I’m excited to get to see these kids compete and keep learning to play for each other this season."