The Kelly Lane Middle School team works great together, have lots of skills and are working to make it to district.
The Kelly Lane Middle School soccer team is super excited for the new season. They’ve been practicing a lot together and have built really good communication after working hard for weeks. The coaches are helping make sure that their team is ready to play and make it to district.
“Honestly, the biggest challenge that we faced so far is how young we are because we have a lot of seventh graders,” Coach John Alvarado said.. “Unfortunately that means that we’re usually undersized against other teams who have a lot of eighth graders in addition to that, we had our first two games to be canceled, so we didn’t have a lot of time to really develop any chemistry.”
Being on the Kelly Lane Middle School soccer team requires focus, hard work, and readiness to do your best, as game preparation involves mental and physical readiness to win.
“I usually get a little quick wash on my gloves just to get them activated and then I do some warm-up drills Just to activate my mind and lock in,” seventh grader Cole Inabinnet said,
While pre game routines like Cole’s help players mentally prepare, the team’s overall performance comes down to their strengths and areas for growth.
“Our strengths are we have good chemistry and good passes and have a strong defense and or weaknesses are we aren’t confident and we need to take a shots,” seventh grader Ron Geva said.
Despite the challenges, it’s that chemistry and connection Geva mentioned that truly defines the team. Their ability to support each other and grow together is what makes this team so special.
“The athletes have such big passion for soccer and they live in breathe in it and that’s what makes the team so special,” sixth grade ELA teacher Ms. Shanda Thomas said.
What makes this team stand out isn’t just their skills it’s the way they come together as one team. That special bond has shaped them this season. But how does this year’s team compare to the one that came before it?
“This year’s team compared to last year‘s team this year has so many more seventh graders and last year they had way more eighth graders so this year‘s team has to fight really hard to go against those eighth grader,” eighth grader Isabella Callejas said.