A Fresh Start to Soccer Season

A new soccer season has begun and it looks like players will have to work extra hard if they want to compete with other schools at APAC. This year’s team is making a fresh start with only 6 returning players from last year’s APAC team. The girls’ team consist of 10 returning players from last year’s team. The previous soccer season ended with our boys placing 5th out of 6 teams and the girls being 4th out of 6th teams. The boys’ team had a total of 12 seniors out of 18 players. Even with all those seniors, the team still placed 5th, this year without them, it is expected to be extremely difficult to compete.

This year, the boys team has a very fresh roster of new players. Freshmen include Lucas E, Heer P, Andrew Z, Alex T, Anderson F, and Bryson C. New sophomores this year include Jeffrey S, Isco A, Hayden H, and Tyler K. There is one new senior, Dylan C. For the girl’s team, there are also a few new players joining the team. This year’s freshmen are Anika K, Grace K. There are three new sophomores, Christel L and Ellie C, and Priena P. The only senior new to the team is Becky R.

Sadly, this year the AISG community must say goodbye to some of our seniors that have been on the team since freshmen year. Some of these hardworking players are of Sameer S, Danny K, Dylan C, Regina K, Megan H, Minting Y, and Becky R.

Danny K, captain of the boys soccer team, says “The team is a very young team. We have a long way to go but the players are learning quick. I feel very excited and I am willing to give my best during games. I just wish I will leave no regrets.”

Regina K, captain of the girls’ team, says, “I think I am both excited and worried at the same time since I am captain and I want to bring good results home, but I am also excited to go to APAC. I think our team must work mainly on stamina because there are many new people who just came in to try out and are a bit inexperienced in the stamina area. However, I believe that Coach Tyner’s drill will really help the team improve in those areas.”

As a member of the varsity soccer team, I feel as though our team is very young and fresh. However, if we work hard, we will be able to compete against better schools. This is my second year on the team and I believe that if we don’t get the result we want this year, we will work harder next year to achieve our goals because as I said before, we are a young team.

AISG is competing against three other schools that have been training as a team for almost a year. This makes it exceptionally hard as AISG trains a lot less compared to other schools, training merely 4 times a week only when the season begins. Other schools have been training regardless of whether the season begins or not.

Tri-cities, the annual tournament for every sport, is this week and is hosted by SASPD (Shanghai American School Puodong). Go Rams!