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Independence, MO —
The soccer team takes the field without the usual array of gear and equipment.
There are no bright practice jerseys that most teams sport. In place of a goal, there are orange cones. There’s no tradition, no stories of past success – just 15 girls running through drills, occasionally laughing and trying to learn a sport that, for about half of them, was completely foreign until a few months ago.
This is the St. Mary’s girls soccer program.
The Trojans wrapped up their inaugural season on May 3 with an 8-0 victory over Imagine Renaissance Academy, which left the first-year team with a final record of 4-3-1. Technically, the Trojans are a junior varsity team, which means no postseason tournament. But four of St. Mary’s matches came against varsity squads – the Trojans went 2-2 in those contests with wins over Renaissance and Alta Vista.
The idea for a soccer program at St. Mary’s had been in the works for several years. It was mostly the brainchild of principal Jeff Lynch with some fostering from activities director Sara Kenney. Both heard students express interest in starting a team, and both also knew the negative impact not having one was having on enrollment numbers.
“Some kids were choosing not to come here because we didn’t have a soccer program,” Kenney said. “It’s something over the past few years I knew personally we needed in order to keep our numbers up.”
In the past, they never quite had the numbers to field a squad because of eligibility issues and the presence of the track and field program. But around December, after some persistent pestering from prospective players, Lynch and Kenney decided to approach Steve Jochems – who is a paraprofessional at the school and has experience refereeing soccer and coaching at the youth level – about potentially coaching the team.
Jochems was game, with Kenney agreeing to serve as assistant coach. Originally, the Trojans had about 20 girls express interest in playing. That whittled to 15 by the start of the season, but it was still enough to get things rolling.
“I knew that I had some good coaches,” Lynch said. “And I knew that I had some good kids, because these were girls who had told me personally they’d rather play soccer than run track.”
The first days were less than encouraging. Practice started in February, and Jochems quickly realized that basic soccer terms like “PK” and “offsides” were confusing to his inexperienced bunch. Drills were executed at a snail’s pace. At the team’s initial meeting, Jochems drew a picture of a soccer field and ran through all of the sport’s most basic rules.
The soccer team takes the field without the usual array of gear and equipment.
There are no bright practice jerseys that most teams sport. In place of a goal, there are orange cones. There’s no tradition, no stories of past success – just 15 girls running through drills, occasionally laughing and trying to learn a sport that, for about half of them, was completely foreign until a few months ago.
This is the St. Mary’s girls soccer program.
The Trojans wrapped up their inaugural season on May 3 with an 8-0 victory over Imagine Renaissance Academy, which left the first-year team with a final record of 4-3-1. Technically, the Trojans are a junior varsity team, which means no postseason tournament. But four of St. Mary’s matches came against varsity squads – the Trojans went 2-2 in those contests with wins over Renaissance and Alta Vista.
The idea for a soccer program at St. Mary’s had been in the works for several years. It was mostly the brainchild of principal Jeff Lynch with some fostering from activities director Sara Kenney. Both heard students express interest in starting a team, and both also knew the negative impact not having one was having on enrollment numbers.
“Some kids were choosing not to come here because we didn’t have a soccer program,” Kenney said. “It’s something over the past few years I knew personally we needed in order to keep our numbers up.”
In the past, they never quite had the numbers to field a squad because of eligibility issues and the presence of the track and field program. But around December, after some persistent pestering from prospective players, Lynch and Kenney decided to approach Steve Jochems – who is a paraprofessional at the school and has experience refereeing soccer and coaching at the youth level – about potentially coaching the team.
Jochems was game, with Kenney agreeing to serve as assistant coach. Originally, the Trojans had about 20 girls express interest in playing. That whittled to 15 by the start of the season, but it was still enough to get things rolling.
“I knew that I had some good coaches,” Lynch said. “And I knew that I had some good kids, because these were girls who had told me personally they’d rather play soccer than run track.”
The first days were less than encouraging. Practice started in February, and Jochems quickly realized that basic soccer terms like “PK” and “offsides” were confusing to his inexperienced bunch. Drills were executed at a snail’s pace. At the team’s initial meeting, Jochems drew a picture of a soccer field and ran through all of the sport’s most basic rules.
“It was literally ground zero starting up and just learning the terminology,” he said, “much less trying to run drills and everything else.”
But the team’s maturation was rapid. The Trojans lost their first match – a 4-2 defeat to Maranatha Academy, which played a mix of varsity and JV players – but the St. Mary’s fans erupted when junior Alexis Sirna scored the program’s first goal.
More substantial success followed shortly as the Trojans battled Truman’s JV to a 0-0 tie and followed with three wins in their next four matches.
“Just seeing everybody work together as a team and encouraging each other more and more every day, we were like, ‘We can actually do this. We can actually win,’” senior defender Christina Vaughn said. “It was just so fun seeing everybody play together. We’re like sisters.”
Kenney and Jochems said they’re looking into making the move up to the varsity level next season, but nothing is finalized.
Of course, the program will have a limited shelf life with the school’s plans to merge with O’Hara High School in 2015. But the way Lynch sees it, starting a team now will give St. Mary’s players a head start if they decide to play at the new school.
“My biggest thing is this is something the kids really want to do and this is an opportunity for them,” Lynch said. “... Now you’re going to have girls, when that time comes, who are going to have experience and be able to try out when the school comes together as opposed to girls who had never played high school soccer.”
“It’s exciting,” senior sweeper Katie Alexander said. “I feel like I’m leaving a legacy behind.”
