By: Sydney Brammer
As some may already know, the JV and varsity girls soccer teams combined the week before Thanksgiving break for their first two preseason games. If you went to at least one of the games, you may have also seen the amount of girls on the bench (not starting). What you probably don’t know is that about half of those girls weren’t allowed to play (both on JV and varsity). But the question is, why?
To answer this question, varsity head coach, Mr. Viera says, “It’s just a CIF rule. I think it’s because of eligibility requirements.” To approach such a large amount of girls Viera said, “The practices were hectic. We had 47 kids because the girls that were still playing club got involved during practice so it was pretty chaotic, but during the games it was like any other game. Coach Wall helped a lot with which JV girls could go where.”
For the few JV players that got to play, Viera said, “Some people were put in difficult positions and we relied on a few to play quite a bit.” With some of the varsity girls not being able to play Viera said, There were some good players that didn’t get to play and obviously as a coach you want your team to be at full strength. If we were at full strength, the results of those games may have been a bit different, but I can’t worry about the kids that can’t play, I have to worry about the kids that can play.”
Ashley Wainwright, ’20, is one of the varsity captains and she says, “I thought it was a great opportunity for all of the girls to get a chance to play together at the varsity level.” Not many JV players got to play at the varsity level, but for the couple that did Wainwright says, “the JV players did well considering their circumstances. It’s hard to be thrown into a varsity game with girls you don’t usually play with, but they held their own and helped the team.”
Savannah Travis ’20 is one of the other varsity captains and felt that it was “unnecessary” for the JV team to be pulled up. To elaborate she says, “Yes, varsity would have been low subs, but we had the players to field a team without JV.” However, on the bright side she says, “JV really made a difference and gave us strength in places we definitely would have been lacking without them. They made a positive difference.”
With the amount of players at that time, Travis says, “Viera did the best he could with so many players. I think it was a good idea to separate everyone into groups.” However, Travis also has some ideas that maybe would have made the whole system work a little more smoothly, “I would have separated people by positions so that we can focus on their skills specifically.”
Wainwright and Travis both agree that the varsity players that were unable to play in those two games did affect the outcome of the games. Travis states, “Most of the players that sat are our starters and a large force on the team… the ones that were still out were playing a level higher in the competitive aspect of club since it’s for the NPL showcase… without that experience on our team for those past two games we were good, but we could have done better.”
Mckenna Cook ’22, a player on the JV team had the opportunity of playing during both of the varsity games at the forward position. She says, “It was really nerve racking playing with varsity that week because I knew that I needed to play my best and I wanted to look good.” Cook’s favorite part was, “the play of the game went way faster and was more entertaining than JV is.” Her least favorite part was, “I was not used to playing with the girls on varsity.” After playing at this level, Cook wants to bring back to JV, “speeding up our play on the ball and we could move through the other teams much better and win more games.”
Elise Hyde, ’22, is one of the many players on varsity that were unable to play during those games because she was still playing for club. She says, “I was really glad watching the two games because it allowed me to see how my team played and how other individuals played to know where to pass or make runs.” Hyde’s thoughts on JV and varsity combining is, “I like it combined because it was a healthy challenge for everyone to face and learn how to work and support people who you may not know.” On the down side, Hyde was “bummed that club players couldn’t play school soccer because we were all excited to play with our friends and to start off the new season.”
Redwood Womens Soccer is united and supports each other under any circumstance. Both JV and varsity teams were short players and needed to work together to accomplish their one goal- winning playing as a team.