Staff Writer
The girls’ varsity soccer team has high hopes for its next season, regardless of the squad’s disappointing 2-7-1 record in the Rio Hondo League last year. Coach Gallo and his returning players have brought a new sense of determination to the team, which they feel will allow them to improve greatly upon the previous year’s season record.
The squad began having consistent practices during month of August, well before the beginning of the true preseason. This has allowed the team to put lot of work into conditioning and building chemistry between the upperclassmen and the newly added underclassmen players. Their focus for the season has been improving on their individual skills in order to create a team which fully employs each of its member’s strengths.
“What separates the team now from last year is that we have a lot of young players that hustle a lot and are committed,” junior center midfielder Megan Wong said.
With seven seniors having graduated after the previous school year, the team will look to many freshmen and sophomores to add a youth and vigor to the team, as well as to provide a promising future for the years ahead. The team will be headed by returning senior captain Olivia Chu, and supported by returning upperclassmen such as seniors Natalie Hong and Lauren Richards as well as juniors Wong, Amelia Deyoung and Jayda Weeks. Each of these players will provide leadership and consistency to the relatively young team.
“We’ve been practicing since August, working harder and improving our team chemistry to get our good reputation back as a team,” Chu said. “It’s going to be great having a lot of fresh faces to help.”
The players plan to re-establish South Pasadena as a dominant team in the league and have made it a goal to reclaim the title which has eluded them for years.