The PCS girls soccer team, coached by Kelly Binger and co-captained by Farrah Von Sothen and Roxana Ortiz, are currently 7-5-1 (at time of press) into their ongoing season. After the graduation of several notable players last year, the team was unsure of how they would perform this season. After a turbulent pre-season, the players pulled through and claimed victory against North Salinas, Greenfield, and Notre Dame. The team and their families were thrilled with this early winning streak, especially with the uncertainty floating around during the pre-season practices. With the inspiring guidance from Kelly Binger, the team was able to beat the competition and maintain their good spirits. 11th grade soccer player Kai Brandt commented on the turn of events in the early season, “I’m happy to be playing a sport for my high school. The environment is really fun and everyone seems to have a good time.” Similarly, senior center-defender Natalia Ortiz explained the growth of the team’s skill and success: “We’re getting better. In the beginning we weren’t that great. But now we’re working together and playing some good soccer.”

The team insists that they tribute their determined attitude during games to the many warm-up drills they do. Co-captain Farrah Von Sothen often plays loud and hyper music to energize the team up and raise the overall mindset of practice. “Farrah and Roxana’s leadership  on and off the field has helped us a lot this season,” said Kai Brandt. Clearly, as with any PCS sport, it is the high hopes and comradery of the players that elicit successful games and the most amount of fun. Many students are excited to see what the 2018-2019 girls soccer team accomplishes next.

Unfortunately, leadership and teamwork can only fuel the team’s success so much—it cannot, however, control the weather. The rainy days in Santa Cruz have definitely hindered the soccer team’s progress towards CCS. The winter season has brought storms that make the fields wet, muddy, and extremely hard to practice on. On the turf fields, the ball moves much faster and becomes very slippery, causing problems when running through drills and fine-tuning the players’ technique. Regardless of the type of field, the sheets of rain often cause practices to be canceled and stunt the progress of our student athletes (as pictured below). All students and players are hoping for the rain to clear up soon, and for sunny skies to bring more victories to PCS.