(From the Stanstead College yearbook)
Senior Girls
The senior girls soccer team had a terrific year led by captains Florence Aube, Mackenzy St-Pierre and Chloe Van Dyke. Although the season started off slow with losses in our home tournament and two ties to start the regular season, the girls really came together at the CAIS tournament in St. John N.B. improving with every game they played. We finished in 7th out of 16 teams, and the girls continued their refined play back home taking them to the leagues semi-finals against Galt. The girls worked hard day in and day out and their improvement was incredible. Each and every girl should be proud of how hard they worked and how much their teamwork and soccer skills developed. That is all a coach can ask for in a season so thank you very much girls for a great first season.
Junior Girls
This was a unique year for the junior girls' soccer program. Before any of you even showed up for day one at the school, the coaching staff had multiple discussions internally to decide if we should even have a bantam girls program at all or go ahead and make one massive junior girls' team. You see, we knew that there would only be 8 of you who were bantam age. So we decided that we would go with the huge team and form two sub-teams within that big one: on A or "Red" Team and a B or "White" Team. We knew that one team would be competitive in league play and the other team would get crushed but that the practices would be far more beneficial to all. So we decided to put all 31 of you on one massive team with three coaches. The logic being that you would all improve and the experience would be beneficial for all and there would be for more team bonding among all 31 girls.
So, I have to tell you, this was one of my favourite seasons of coaching any team at Stanstead College. Thirty-one girls running around scrimmaging and doing drills and using every corner of the field. It was awesome to watch you all in action. We constantly mixed things up and tried to always match you up randomly in terms of skill and ability so you could learn from each other and improve as individual players and, more importantly, bond as teammates. You see, practice matters more to me than games. We practice on a lot more days than we ploy in games and the pressure of winning is nonexistent in practice so we con have fun together.
Statistically, the "Red" team finished 3rd in the league and the "White" team finished 5th. The "Red" team had a strategy going into the playoffs to beat Massey Vanier (whom we had tied and lost to in the season). We come close. Our strategy almost worked. We lost 1-0 in a monsoon. Remember that game? Pouring rain. Biblical rain. Noah's flood rain. The "White" team all came to support. It was awesome. And a little crazy. And wet.
We did as well as we could and that's what Stanstead stands for.
One of the themes of my closing speech was that I did not get into high school coaching for the elitism of sport. If that was the case, we would hove cut half of you and sent you to intramurols. Can you imagine? The sisterhood broken and the friendships and memories gone. There ore more important things in sport than winning. I hope you remember that all your lives. I also spoke about how the little things matter. All the little things we do in practice and apply in games, but also you girls in grade 7 and 8 who are indeed "little things" that matter. I can't wait to conch you next yearl Thanks to coaches Smith and Benizri. Thanks to Rosie who embodies the spirit of this team, to Mariama the bantam "S" winner, and Ana Sofia De La Barra you are the bar!
(From the Stanstead College website, September 20th)
Athlete of the week: Alison Barlow
With a very quick start to the season, a lot has been asked of the senior girls’ soccer team, with a home opener against Galt and then right into the Stanstead Invitational Tournament. Although she isn’t a captain, Alison Barlow has proven herself a leader on the field very quickly. In five games, Ali has played four different positions and led through example with nothing but hard work and determination. An exemplar of a coachable athlete, she does whatever is asked of her with 109%! In a weekend with blistering heat, and four hours of game play, Alison never quit, winning play after play, ball after ball, never asking for a rest, and never slowing down! Alison was the hardest working girl all weekend. Congratulations, Ali, on earning the athlete of the week.