The girls’ soccer teams have created a fun and supportive atmosphere that is unlike any other. With help from all their team bonding activities, the varsity team is currently 7-2-1 overall and 6-2 in league. All three teams do team bonding activities such as scavenger hunts and escape rooms. Strong player relationships, support from players and coaches, and overall better soccer has come from it.

Varsity coach Alyssa Hurt, from a coaching standpoint, really sees how much these activities have helped her team. “We’ve tried to do the team bonding every year with the team, but not always as much  . What has helped it that we have had a lot of players with injuries this year, and so we have had to bring players from JV up to varsity and I think that their transition has been a lot more successful, and they feel more comfortable stepping in because of the activities we have done.” She also sees more interaction between the girls and a shared feeling of community overall that has not been there in the past.

The coaching staff has tried hard this year to emphasize on spending more time on an interaction between 2 or 3 of the teams instead of working only on individual teams. Coach Hurt said, “This year we have tried to focus on doing more interaction together so we have made a big emphasis on allowing varsity and JV to practice together once and month, JV and C team to practice together once a month, and then trying to set time aside every few weeks where all three teams are doing something together.”

The players also have seen a difference in the play, in the community and increased synergy after the team building.

Laura Pierson, varsity captain, has experienced a lot of positive attitudes and communication as a result. “I think that we all just really care about each other, so even if we don’t see each other throughout the day we just text each other – we have a group chat going. It’s kind of a family as a case of we all just really care about each other.” She notes the frequent times when that positive attitude shows. “Whenever someone scores, no matter who it is, there’s always just a sense of ‘We’re so proud of you’ or ‘good job’ feeling.” Theresa Barnhart, a player on the C team states, “I don’t know if I can think of one specific moment, but instead of someone just screaming at you, they tell you something supportive and encouraging.”

The team buildings activities and set aside time for program-wide practice and interaction within the girls’ soccer unit this year has had a serious impact on players and level of play alike. The leaders of the teams have stepped up in creating time for activities and bring a radiant spirit onto the field, the record and the soccer  are looking good and most important of all, they are all having fun.