By Jackie Ruiz, Editor
Getting one percent better each day is the Girls Soccer Team’s ultimate goal for the rest of this semester and next school year.
“Our team motto is ‘ganas’ which means the desire and urge to want to win and grow. We definitely want to establish more ‘ganas’ into our games,” said Soccer coach Bryan Ramallo.
Ramallo has been teaching at Senior High for two years. He is a Spanish I teacher for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors; he also teaches EL Physical Education and coaches Girls Wrestling.
This is Ramallos first year coaching the Girls Varsity Soccer Team.
“So far the experience has been amazing; I’ve had the privilege to work with a lot of different students and different staff members,” he said. “I definitely love the environment and relationships that I’ve established; it’s really amazing here.”
Ramallo said he became the girls soccer coach after his experiences coaching at Walnut Middle School.
He added that the experience motivated him to grow as a coach and continue to establish the soccer culture at GISH.
“With that, I really love the sport, so I wanted to continue to coach soccer,” he said.
Ramallo explained that there is a difference between coaching middle school and high school teams.
“In middle school, you have a lot of girls who are brand new to the sport, and at the high school level, you have girls who have been playing for a couple of years. With the culture itself, a lot of girls at the high school level are very passionate soccer players,” he said.
On March 30, the girls soccer team played one of the school’s rivals, Hastings High. The Varsity team won 3-1 and the JV team tied 1-1 in regulation and won in penalty kicks.
“It feels great to win, and right now, it’s one of the best moments I have with the team. There isn’t a day that goes by that hasn’t created a good memory,” Ramallo said.
On April 13, they had a home game against Lincoln Pius and lost 10-0. On April 24, the JV team won during their penalty kicks against Lincoln High and the Varsity team lost 1-0.
Freshman Emma Hayman said that although they lost, she wants to continue to get better and win more games.
“I want to be a better player overall, and I hope that we get to win more games as a team,” she said.
Hayman said she started to play soccer when she saw her friends playing soccer in the 5th grade. She now plays Central Defensive Midfielder (CDM), which is a defensive position usually placed at the center of the field, in the Varsity Team.
She added that soccer has taught her that it’s important to be kind to people because criticism affects people in different ways.
The soccer team holds practices on the grass field across from Memorial Stadium and sometimes inside the stadium. They have conditioning practices, technical practices, and tactical practices. They even have practices that are special for team bonding like yoga practices, etc.
Ramallo said that their goal this year is to get more girls to try out for soccer and to push both of their teams to become the best that they can be.
“We want to continue to push the girls JV and Varsity groups to where we are able to play the game a lot smoother: better touches, better crosses, better finishing, and better chemistry,” he said.
Make sure to support these girls as they continue to practice and show off their skills on the field. Their next game is on May 1 for NSAA District Soccer.
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