Kempsville’s girls varsity soccer team is starting this spring season off strong with positive attitudes and great ambition. Head coach of the team and biology teacher at KHS, Ms. Terry, thinks that the season is off to a good start.
Student athletes already have a lot on their plate with school and practice, so it is tough to keep a positive mindset during and outside of game time, but the girls are very hopeful for this season. They can feel that the outcome will be superb and aspire to make it to conference games.
Taylor Pokraka, a sophomore on the team, also believes that they’ve got a great start to the season. As a player and teammate she hopes “to stay confident, to stay mentally engaged, and to stay professional on and off the field.”
Karleigh Edwards, a freshman player on Kempsville’s team, aspires “to get goals, win some games, and to be persevered.”
So far the team has played three games and are currently one-two, but “it’s going very well, we’re better together. We’ve got a high future,” Shayna Friedman, a sophomore on the KHS team, states.
Kailey Ott, another freshman of girls varsity soccer, believes that “we’re going to grow as a team and I think that we’re gonna get better on and off the field with communicating and teamwork.”
This is Ms. Terry’s first year teaching and coaching at Kempsville. She mentions that she is “learning a lot just by being out [there] with the girls everyday.”
There are currently ten freshmen on the team, “but I definitely see us going very far. Maybe not this year, it might be a growing year for us. I definitely see us, as these girls become juniors and seniors you know, we’re going to be pretty good,” Ms. Terry adds.
Coach Terry played soccer growing up, which has helped with her coaching on the field. She played soccer for Virginia Wesleyan and graduated with her undergraduate degree in 2022 and gained her Masters Degree last year.
Coach Terry notes that she’s “been in and around soccer for what feels like my whole life, so it’s just natural for me to come out here and play with the girls and be out there.”
Sports offer all kinds of opportunities and a sense of community amongst team members. Ms. Terry agrees that that is the case with soccer as well. She “can really feel that out on the field here. I got these goobers over here laughing and joking, and so I think that was definitely how it was when I was growing up [too]. That’s the culture I definitely want to instill in my girls.”
Being a member of a team can be rewarding. You can become friends with people you may have never met before joining the team, and those friendships can last a lifetime. There are many memories to be made out there on the field. Kempsville’s girls soccer definitely demonstrates the inclusivity and love of the sport.
Ms. Terry aims for the team to come back strong after spring break and to “prove some people wrong, ‘cause in the past, Kempsville has been pretty average. So hopefully we can break out of that average and we can get into the top three of the conference.”
On that note, the team got their first win against Deep Creek last Thursday (March twenty-first), winning with a score of five to one.
All in all, Kempsville’s girls varsity soccer team has great promise for the season. The players each have individual and team goals in the back of their heads, and plan on meeting those targets by their last game. Here’s to a high season for Kempsville soccer!
