Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s girls’ soccer team enjoyed a successful season this year.
For the last several weeks the Eagles, made up of 15 girls from Grades 8 to 11, have been competing at tournaments across the Interior regularly finishing in the top three. While they ended up coming fifth in Zones last weekend in Prince George, the team’s senior members say they see a lot of potential in the years to come.
“The new girls have definitely grown a lot and they’re doing really good. I’m proud of all of us,” Eva Rosenstock, the team’s centre defensive mid, said.
Rosenstock, a Grade 11 student, is one of a core of more experienced players who have been leading the team and mentoring the younger players this year. Her peers include fellow Grade 11 students like striker Ximena Cibrian, midfielder Joelle Kuyek and defencewoman Lauren Aikenhead.
The girls kicked off the season by taking second place in a tournament in Hope which Rosenstock said was a good sign. Cibrian said they followed this up with a first-place finish in Merrit and a third-place finish in Clearwater. Kuyek observed the Clearwater tournament was held on a hot weekend and that, with only one sub, the team was working hard to compete.
At Zones Rosenstock said the team ran into stiff competition early on losing 6-0 on May 15 to Prince George’s own Duchess Park Secondary School. Cibrian noted that this was their team’s first year playing at the Double A level and consequently they’d never played against many of the teams.
“It was a good experience to play against a hard team and we had to respect them. Then we played against Nechako Valley Secondary School who we play a lot in tournaments. We always either tie and go into shootouts or one of us wins,” Rosenstock said, with Nechako ultimately winning this latest matchup.
Kuyek added that playing in Prince George was different because they had “really nice grass.” She explained the girls had to handle the ball differently because it rolled differently on this quality of grass.
In their third game against D.P. Todd Secondary School, the girls claimed a 4-2 victory, with Cibrian scoring a hat trick of three goals. Scoring so much felt “pretty good” Cibrian said, noting her team helped her achieve it with good passing and teamwork.
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“They’re a tremendously hardworking group (of players) and very positive and supportive of each other,” Steven Keller, the team’s teacher sponsor and assistant coach, said. “They listen well and that’s the thing we want.”
Keller said he’s proud of the team for their results this year, noting the girls learned from their defeats as much as their victories. He is especially impressed by some of the younger players who he noted are not only more mature mentally than most Grade 8s and 9s but able to play for the entire game with the older players.
All of the Grade 11s agreed that their Grade 8 players this year have a lot of potential going forward. Aikenhead admitted that most of them are already better soccer players than she was at their age.
“We’ve really come together and played well as a strong team together,” Aikenhead remarked. “It can be a little frustrating at times (mentoring them), but you just need to realize we were there at some point and that they’ll grow. For their age category, they’re doing really well and it pushes you to work hard as well.”
With all this young talent Rosenstock, Cibrian, Kuyek and Aikenhead are confident the team will be able to do better next year and maybe bring home a win from Zones. Even with the tournaments and regular season now over, the team is still practising and will train throughout the winter. They hope to work on their communication and passing more, noting it can break down when they get frazzled.
“I think for next year we also need more people on the team and to show up all the time because most games we play with no subs or maybe one. Thing is, people get injured and that makes it really difficult to play,” Aikenhead said.
Kuyek said joining the team is worth it, remarking she wished she had joined the team at a younger age.
“If I had joined earlier I would have enjoyed it so much more. There’s no point in being scared to join the team. It’s a lot of fun.”
