Although the girls soccer season ended recently with a Sectional loss to Valparaiso, the time had special meaning for three seniors — Kailey Wise, Yaretzi Carrillo and Shanaya Thomas who experienced it together as best friends.
Kailey Wise, a captain this season, looked at the team as a big family.
“Everyone is very close, and everyone has been building a lot of new relationships,” she said. “I loved being able to meet people who are not only seniors, and watching the underclassmen grow up was really an amazing thing to see this year considering I was once in their position.
Wise experienced a lot of emotions with this being her last year on the soccer team .
“I’m very sad about this being my last year, but I don’t think it has fully hit me yet,” she said. “I can definitely say this has been a great season on the girls soccer team. Knowing that this is my last year, I’m going to keep making great experiences and making the most out of each day and also me being the captain this year, I have made some type of impact on the girls.’’
Carillo, another co-captain, also looks at the team as one big sisterhood.
“Honestly being on the team has really meant a lot to me. I have always looked at the girl’s as one big family,” she said. “I’ve been on the team since my freshman year of high school, and I’ve enjoyed growing as an athlete and person on the team. . . I also hope to stay close with a lot of the girls because it is truly like we are all sisters.”
Being a family, means they always had each others’ backs.
I would say we are all each other’s hypewoman. Before games we will sit in the locker rooms and hype each other up by playing music or just simply having team chats to motivate us. Another way we would encourage each other on the team is by chanting different powerful things that would motivate everyone to get out on the field and play our hardest.’’
Thomas credits Wise with helping her through tough times.
“I look up to Kailey because she is a very great leader and I always look up to her with school academically also,” Thomas said. “She is just very inspiring and is willing to always lend a helping hand no matter the situation.”
One of the biggest challenges for Thomas was the workouts.
“They can be really rough sometimes because we focus mostly on cardio so we would run four fields or do cross country runs,” she said. “After that we do different types of advanced drills and team work to make sure we are all like this big family.’’
