Stoneham Captains Ready to Lead Spartans into New Season

The girls' soccer team will try to match last year's 14-2-2 overall record, but this time around advance further than it did a season ago when it was eliminated in the second round of the tournament against Hamilton-Wenham.

Two thousand-eleven is a new year and captains Colleen O’Quinn and Betsy Albiani want to top the team’s performance of a year ago.

“The goal for this year as a team is to maintain the same record as last year, if not better. The competition should be different this year because the Middlesex League is split into two groups, one consisting of big schools and the other consisting of smaller schools,” O’Quinn said. “We beat for the first time in about 20 years last year, not once, but twice, so we plan on defeating them once again on (Wednesday) which is our first game of the year.”

O’Quinn is determined to beat Belmont in the regular season and at least make it to the quarterfinals in the State tournament.

“We struggled to defeat Belmont last season, losing by only a small margin in both games. We are definitely capable of beating Belmont and I have no doubts that we will,” O’Quinn said.

 “As for the tournament, we plan on advancing to at least the third round, one round more than last year.”

O’Quinn knows it will be tough, but knows the team can obtain these goals through hard work and preparation.

“Each day of practice we are one of the only teams left on the field practicing. Our success in every game will be a result of our hard work during practices,” O’Quinn said. “Summer preparation was a key factor for preparing for a successful season. Captains practices were held every Monday and Wednesday morning and we all played summer league games on Tuesday and Thursday nights.”

O’Quinn points out the job head coach Sharon Chapman does of scouting other teams within the league.

“Our coach does a great job of scouting the teams in our league and give us a scouting report before every game in order to prepare us for our next opponent,” O’Quinn said. “This helps us to mentally prepare for the upcoming game.”

O’Quinn described the team chemistry between each player and how it is incomparable to any other team she has played for.

“I consider all my teammates my friends and we always share a lot of laughs together,” O’Quinn said. “Despite the age difference between players, we are still very close and always have a fun time together.”

O’Quinn said she really wants a taste of a Middlesex League title in 2011 since last year they fell short.

“Winning the Middlesex League title would be a feeling of accomplishment,” O’Quinn said. “This would be the ultimate way of recognizing our hard work that every player puts in each day.”

Meanwhile, Albiani shares much of the same views as O’Quinn on the upcoming season.

“This year as a team, we would like to win the Middlesex League for the small division,” Albiani said. “We also want to have a winning season like last year, which was the best record in SHS girls’ soccer team history.

“We will achieve these goals by working hard every day at practice. Practice like you play.”

Albiani described what it will take to be competitive in an always tough Middlesex League.

“In order to compete, we will need to play physical with our opponents,” Albiani said. “There are some strong girls, so we need to make sure we don’t get pushed off the ball. We will also need to keep possession and try to play foot-to-foot.

“For our team, everyone plays a different role that is important in some way that leads to our team’s success.”

The Spartans kick off the season against Winchester Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. at Stoneham High.