The beginning of the new school year brings many things. New classes, teachers, and friends but for Mr. Francis and Mr. Trudell, it’s all about soccer. The truth is that the soccer team started even before the start of the school year. The preseason started on August 18th. Practices were 7:30 to 9:00 am, and of course, it was no walk in the park for that hour and thirty minutes
Mr. Francis is our dean of students in his free time, if he has any, he is watching soccer. His love of soccer bloomed when he was young, “When I was smaller, there was a period when I had to just watch and I couldn’t wait until I got taller and big enough.” He grew up with the ball on his feet. He wants to share his love of soccer with Jemicy by being the soccer coach.
Mr.Trudell is the other soccer coach. Mr.Trudell is an amazing coach and one of the best at what he does. He knew when players were struggling and could help out with the team by pushing them to their limits in training. That’s why he was such a great coach, his coaching style was rugged, just like his experience as a rugby player. The reason why he was so hard on the players was because of the long gap between this past soccer season and the one before because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It really affected the player’s fitness levels and how quickly the team came together and played competitively.
As Mr. Francis commented on the long break between seasons, saying “It was different this year. As I said, not knowing the players made it a little bit challenging because you need to kind of quickly figure out what is the skill level, what is the experience, what do they know? And to figure out how much pushing is enough pushing. The goal is not to break players, but to encourage them to improve and get better. And, so figuring out drills the way I see you got to start with the basics. If we can pass the ball. If we can receive the ball as a team. If we stand a chance, and then there are other things to layer on top of that in terms of teamwork, Team defending you know, there are other levels hopefully later on. In later seasons we can build on, and help the team learn how to attack as a team as well as some other things as well.”
The Jemicy Varsity racked up 3 wins and 10 losses. They got to the quarter-finals of the conference tournament, losing to Gerstell 9-0. The statistics do not tell the story for the Jemicy soccer team. Many players were not ready for the amount of running soccer requires. For some that are not well versed in what soccer is, you may think it’s just 22 players sprinting after a ball for 80 minutes. Now it’s not just sprinting after a ball, there are tactics like any other sport. Many of the players weren’t ready for the technical side of soccer. After each and every practice and game the team grew and grew.
Jacob Elkins the captain of the team talks about his experience.“I became more coordinated and I improved my leadership abilities. I’ve never been captain of a team before, I think we did a great job improving physically. At the beginning of the year, it was evident that we wouldn’t be as good as we were previously. But I think at the end of the year, we really picked it up. Did a great job with a three-game win streak. I think everyone on the team improved.” Jacob didn’t lead with words but with his actions. Throughout the season he saved the soccer team from losing games and keeping Jemicy in them. His highlight as he said was his master class goalkeeping against Key. He saved twelve shots on goal in that game. Even though he got scored on five times the coach of Key gave praise to Jacob after the game.
Goal-keeping saves games but goals win games. The top scorer for the Jemicy soccer team was sophomore Chris Carper. He scored the majority of the goals. His speed, dribbling, strength, and tenacity gave him the advantage over every single defender and goalkeeper he faced. In my opinion, his best game was against Chapelgate scoring 4 goals. Chris was an important player for the Jemicy team.
This solid core of players and willingness to persevere gives the Jemicy soccer program a lot of hope for the future.
MOOSE PRINTS 