JV rises to challenges

by Jay Feinstein
Traditionally, freshman teams are made up of only freshmen. That was not the case this year for girls’ soccer, which saw some sophomores on the JV team also playing on the freshman team due to lacking numbers, said Johanna Lynch, coach of the JV team.
“Some girls who might have come out for soccer in the past are choosing to try other sports or choosing to participate in other school-sponsored activi-ties,” said Lynch.
“We need more numbers to participate in the tryout process to field three full teams at the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels.”
The lack of players trying out affected the schedules of the teams. “Some training sessions were missed, and the logistics of scheduling shared players was a bit challenging,” Lynch said. “Overall, the players rose to the challenge.”
Although Lynch did not keep track of the team’s record, she said the team finished with more wins than loses.
The Tigers entered the sea-son with the goal of achieving a balance between technical and tactical skills.
“We wanted to refine basic soccer skills and knowledge of the game, such as foot skills, passing to feet and movement of the ball,” she said.
To achieve these goals, the Tigers “worked hard at practice and often took the skills practiced into game situations,” Lynch said.
The strength of the team was its unity.
“They were a wonderful group of girls that played a lot of soccer together in the past two months,” Lynch said.
“The returning JV players welcomed the new players and really bonded as a group. We have play41 well together in many games because of team-work.”
A highlight, Lynch noted, was when two players, sopho-more Elizabeth Koch and fresh-man Katie Thomson, moved up to varsity. “They had a consis-tent high level of play at the JV level,” she said.
According to Koch, “It was a really great experience being moved up but both teams were really tight.”
“Both teams were full of re-ally great kids.”
“The junior varsity and freshman teams are a great group of young women,” said Lynch.
“They have been a pleasure to coach and it will be great to see them progress in their soc-cer careers at Newton North.”
 

’15 keeps motivation, develops team unity

by Amanda Hills
Despite an initial lack of play-ers, freshman girls’ soccer, 5-9, was still able to field a team.
Additionally, the girls made many strides to improve their skills, said coach Emily Lewis.
At the beginning of the sea-son, the team had only nine players, while 11 are required for a game.
Lewis and the JV coach, Johanna Lynch, decided that a few JV girls would play at each freshman game, which “exposed the girls to a high level of play,” according to Lewis.
Motivation was key for the team. It was difficult for the players to adjust to sharing the field with the JV players, accord-ing to freshman Lucine Boloyan.
But, Boloyan said, “We didn’t give up. The fact that we were able to try to have a team re-quired motivation.”
She added that she felt hav-ing a small team helped the girls bond with each other.
“We all quickly became great friends. Nobody was left out. There was no exclusion.”