Nine-year losing streak: History!

Watertown High girls’ soccer team beats Mount St. Joseph’s, 4-1

Melissa Rose and Molly Day

This past season, the girls’ soccer team at Watertown High has made history!

Fresh off their 4-1 win off of Mount St. Joseph’s on Sept. 16, 2010, their first in nine years, they are pumped for the rest of the season. In fact, the Raiders have already won another game against Mt. Alverina, 2-1.

The wins have been pouring in for them since. After last year, in which they didn’t even have enough players for a junior varsity team, the surge of freshmen this year has strengthened and expanded the team to the best they have been in a while. They are super excited about their wins, and have high hopes for the rest of the season.

The team is working hard, having practice every day, and are out there, bringing spirit to every game. Emma Day, a senior in her fourth year of being on the team, says that winning games is “Pretty awesome. It hurts to be at the bottom. It is great to be on the other side.”

When asked how the team has changed with their wins, she says, “It is a lot more competitive, and the coaches are taking it a lot more seriously.”

So have the players. This year the team went independent, meaning it played outside of the Middlesex League, to compete against teams that are farther away, but more similar to Watertown in size.

“It has boosted our confidence, being in independent,” Emma says.

She is also thankful to the freshmen: “They have been great, worked hard, and bring even more talent to the team.”

And of being a senior, she is just thankful that after all the years of hard work, it finally pays off.

Hannah Helfner, a junior believes that the cause to their win was that “We were all excited and working hard towards it. All the anticipation, excitement and frustration was built up inside us, and released on the game.”

She also says that “We are very motivated toward the rest of the season.”

Now that the team knows that they are capable of winning, they are putting their all into this season to make it their best ever! Hannah also states that the other factors to their great start to the season were “There were a lot of new freshman, and a good batch of seniors on the team this year.”

She, like the rest of her team is thrilled about the win. Stacie Marino, the coach of the soccer team for six years, and Heather Smith part of the team for three years, have waited for this for years, and they finally got their win.

They have done a great job with the girls over the past seasons, helped the team, through put downs, bad losses, and most of all frustration, but they have pulled through with a spirit and desire that is hard to be matched. That, in the end, drove them to victory.

The soccer team has certainly improved greatly in the past decade. As the season concludes, they are joyous, as the record is broken, the boundaries are broken, and the hopes have risen to new heights. Great job girls!

–Nov. 5, 2010–