WRITTEN BY JADEN FISKE
Interviews and edits by Dana Barbee With the soccer season coming to an end, we’ve interviewed a few seniors from the girls soccer team to get some of their thoughts on the 2022-2023 season. Two of the senior captains, Samantha Chiapa and Jessica Peralta, talked a lot about the season. Samantha stated that she has been playing soccer for about 4 years. She said, “It’s always been my desire to play soccer since I had an older cousin who did and was really good,”, while Jessica stated that she started playing soccer in 11th grade. She says, “I’ve played with my family before, since a lot of my family plays soccer and some went professional.” She also mentioned that her “friends encouraged [her] to try out and [she’s] glad they did because [she] met a lot of great people and found something [she] love[s].” Melina Farabolini, another senior on the soccer team wrote back that she hadn’t been playing soccer for very “long, this is [her] first season ever playing.” She tried out as a senior, because she knew that if she graduated without having done so, she would regret it. When asked about the team's progress, Samantha believes that the team has progressed a lot from the beginning of the season to currently. She stated, “I feel like in the start it was nerves and not really knowing how to play together but everyone is much more confident and determined to win and I believe that if we keep this mindset we can win the whole league.” Jessica believes that they started slow the first game but slowly built up and are making a lot of progress. She typed, “We all make mistakes here and there but we are always there for each other and I just feel like we’ve been doing really well and I’m happy the way we are playing.” She also said, “There’s always room for improvement but we are getting there and I’m proud of how far we’ve come in such little time.” Melina added that the team has improved and that it’s nice to see how good everyone has improved both as a team and individually. All three of them had predictions for the next few games, this question was asked prior to the matches. Samantha’s predictions for the games are hopeful, “...hopefully we win. We’re up against some really good teams but I think if we keep playing how we’ve been we’ll be able to persevere through the challenges”. Jessica’s answers don’t differ as she states that though she cannot make any (predictions) at all, she hopes to win. Melina predicted that they’re going to play good because it’s their (the seniors) last high school season. The fourth question they were asked was if their jerseys had any symbolism or hidden meaning to them. Samantha responded with, “Yes there is symbolism to my Jersey number. 13 has been my lucky number since I was a kid because my favorite player growing up was Alex Morgan”. She also said that on other teams she’s played in with the same number, she’s done well. And that those teams were a significant part of her life. She also says “It was also that one of my good friends and last seasons’ captain wore it and it’s an honor to feel like I filled her shoes.”. Jessica responded that she wears #2 because one of the other captains last year wore it, and they were extremely close. She was extremely happy to be representing her in this way. Melina’s jersey has a significance to her as well. The number 7 has been her lucky number for a long time. Lastly, they were asked if they had any advice to give to other VAAS or aspiring athletes. Samantha responded, “A piece of advice I’d like to share is to not give up and to always be determined. I know it’s easier said than done but if we play like we want to win, we will win and we can’t let anything discourage us until the whistle blows”. Jessica’s bit of advice was “Don’t doubt yourself and never give up.” She says “that even if you fail, get back up and keep going. Because giving up gets you nowhere.” Melina’s advice for other athletes was “Keep working hard, stay consistent and motivated! Because, before you know it, it’s all gone in a flash”. Overall, all the seniors that we interviewed had positive things to say about the 2022-23 soccer season. |
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