It's over. Nov 17th was the Breakers 98 Girl's last game, appropriately at home, and in the end there were tears. Not from every player, just a few, and not for what you may expect. The girls won this final game of their season, which made the girls the Champions of their league! First place!
So why the tears?
The apex this team has reached this season comes after many difficult seasons of demoralizing losses. I find the girls on this team extreme in many ways: extremely competitive, extremely disciplined and extremely passionate. While a loss brings tears of sadness, winning the game that decided the league champions brought tears of joy.
Also, and quite possibly more of the reason behind the tears, this last game brings the team to a major change. Every year there are girls who come and girls who go on this team, but this year the girls will loose their coach, Amy Rivas. Coach Amy has unprecidently been with this team for four years. Usual to the Breakers is for coaches stay with a team for only 2 years. Coach Amy stayed with this team for 4 years and shepherded the girls to a final season in league play of:
5 wins
3 ties
0 losses
15 goals scored (highest scoring team in the league!)
2 goals against (best goalie of the league!)
Change is change, not always good, not always bad, but it is always there, lurking, waiting for a moment to pounce. Change always happens.
The girls went from ranking 89th in all of Northern California, to 75th, they will move from playing in a Silver league to Gold. Hopefully the transition will be smooth, or at least the girls will be up for the new battles. There will be losses next season, possibly demoralizing losses but I hope the girls will learn to learn from the opponents who play the kind of soccer the girls strive to play.
Final stats per player below:
Player Goals Assists Saves
#17 Christiansen, Keeley 2 2
#4 Inman, Lauren 1 2
#3 Wessell, Mackenzie 6 4
#7 Miller, Alyssa 3 3
#8 Schlafly, Geneva 25 14
#9 Singh, Simran 3
#12 Zicarelli, Lucy 2 1
#13 Roth, Veronica 4 2
#16 Plageman, Genevieve
#20 Hernandez-Torres. Paloma 15 2
#21 Winkler, Lauren 4 6
#25 Reed, Mikayla 1
#31 Collins, Sadie 5 (this stat was not followed thoroughly, many, many more saves happened this season!)
#63 Hansen, Hannah 1 1
