Girls Soccer Takes the Field

Story & Photo by Kate Gerding – Feature/News Editor

  Spring sports are officially underway and girls soccer is next to take the field. Tryouts for the team were held the week of Feb. 27 and lasted until that Friday. Morgan Hubert, senior, is not new to this process.

   “I’ve been playing soccer for Lee’s Summit North since freshman year, so four [years],” Hubert said.

   Although she has been playing her entire high school career, Hubert is still looking forward to this year’s season.

   “I think that this year, for me, like half of our friend group is on the team, so a lot of my really good friends which is gonna make it really fun,” Hubert said.

   The new season will also bring along some changes. 

   “The goalie we’ve had since freshman year, Maddie Sibbing, graduated last year so we have a new goalie this year,” Hubert said.

   Unlike previous years, the coaches decided to not have a C-team.

   “The C-team coach is now assisting JV so they’re kind of co-working it together and I think that’ll be good, it’ll be a different set of opinions and just be a fresh set of outlooks,” Hubert said. 

   On the other hand, Emma Gerding, freshman, is experiencing high school soccer for the first time. During tryouts week, there were many things the girls had to do to prove themselves to the coaches. 

   “[Soccer tryouts are] four days after school and we find out on Friday what team we’re on. We do fitness testing and scrimmaging. We had to run the football field 15 times for the fitness test. It was pretty hard,” Gerding said.

   The team does a lot to prepare both on and off the field.

   “I’ve gone to conditioning after school and futsal in the gym on Wednesday morning. Besides scrimmaging and practice, we also did book club meetings during Bronco Time and we had team meetings in the morning to discuss rules and things like that for the season,” Gerding said.

   Each year, the team holds a book club leading up to tryouts week. The books they read are inspirational to get them ready mentally for a challenging season.

   “The theme for this season is trusting the process. We pick our theme each year based on the book we read to get motivated and figure out what we want to focus on,” Gerding said.

   Although there will be some adjusting, both Gerding and Hubert think that the JV and Varsity seasons will be a success.