Soccer: 20th straight state championship at stake
The 2009-2010 Varsity Bears Soccer Team
December 2, 2009 • Mary M.
Filed under Sports
Moments before their season opener against Bishop Lynch begins, the soccer team — 27 players, three managers, three coaches — gathers in a circle for the pre-game prayer. Holding hands, feet and arms crossed, heads bowed, they recite an Our Father, petition St. Theresa Little Flower, Our Lady Queen of Victory, and Baby Jesus for their blessings, and with a resounding “Amen,” the starters take the field.
Not only is this the first game of the season, but it is also the fist game of the team’s quest for a twentieth consecutive state title.
Even with the play-offs two months away, the team is already concerned with a state championship berth.
“The pressure to win state is there from the start,” said midfielder Ellen W. ’10. “But it’s healthy pressure.”
Becoming state champions is certainly no easy task.
For one, the team has 27 players, the biggest squad head Coach Cantrell has put together during her seven years at Ursuline.
The team is so big this year because the soccer program attracts so much talent. Captains Rachel W. ’10 and Erin A. ’10 agree that each player has the skills and the talent to compete for playing time.
“The depth of our bench is 27 players,” said Erin A.
So the Bears have enough talent to carry them through to the state championship in San Antonio in February. But do they have the team chemistry, which is equally as important?
Goalkeeper Rachel W. thinks so. And she expects that the team dynamic will only improve as the season goes on.
Ellen W. agrees, pointing to the soccer team’s long list of traditions as the driving force behind team unity.
“The traditions are the thread that hold the team together,” she said.
The soccer team is famous for its traditions. On game days, the team eats lunch together and meets in the chapel after school for a quick prayer.
Also on game days, each team member brings her Secret Buddy an anonymous gift — usually candy, a Red Bull, or some kind of baked good.
Every game, the girls wear pink ribbons in their hair in memory of a UA soccer alum’s mother who died of breast cancer.
Each player keeps a blue ribbon for the injured players and a yellow ribbon for the troops tied to the laces of her right cleat.
They make new warm-up t-shirts every year and finish their warm-up with the “flying v,” where the field players sprint from midfield to the goal-line and back in the shape of a “v” while the keepers punt balls at them.
The subs remain standing on the sidelines until the team scores its first goal. And there are many more.
These traditions unite generations of Ursuline Soccer players. They not only bond teammates together, but they also bond current Ursuline soccer players with the program’s hundreds of graduates.
As an Ursuline soccer player, said Erin A., “You’re not just playing for yourself. You’re playing for all the girls that came before you.”
That notion fuels the soccer team as they battle their way through district play, and hopefully through the play-offs.
Does the team see a 20th straight state title in the future?
“Nothing is guaranteed,” said Erin A.
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