By Kylie Gaston
Soccer, a sport about scoring goals and kicking a ball, has made an appearance at Louisville High School. This new sport creates another opportunity for the girls in the spring season. Louisville has decided to co-op with Platteview High School.
Louisville has 8 girls participating in soccer. Practices are held from 4 to 5:30 at the Platteview soccer field.
In bringing soccer to Louisville, activities director Kaleb Walker and the admin had a goal.
“We want our students to be able to have a wide range of experiences. We want our culture to be about student participation in and out of the classroom,” Walker said.
Adding a new sport helps to get more girls to participate in something that they have or haven’t tried. While the boys had 3 spring sports to choose from, the girls only had 1, but now they have soccer.
Middle school teacher and coach Kaitlin Spicka used to play soccer at Northwestern College, so she became the girl’s coach.
“I love the sport, and so I think that it’s super cool that we get to play soccer and learn soccer, and that a lot of kids who have never had the opportunity to get that opportunity now,” Spicka said.
Junior Emery Stohlmann is one of the girls who hasn’t played soccer before. “I just thought it would be fun and I wanted to try something new,” she said.
From the first practice, Stohlmann wanted to be a goalie. “I was already trying something new, and I wanted to take it to the next step and do something that not many people do, and I really enjoy it.”
But Stohlmann isn’t the only one who went out for soccer.
Sophomore Holly Haworth has played soccer for multiple years at Evolution Soccer Club. “I’ve been doing it my whole life, and before, it was kind of just something I had to do. But now, I do it and it’s really enjoyable for me.”
Her team has made her experience better. “My favorite part about the season is the teammates we have. The girls are accepting and fun to play with,” Haworth said.
Connecting with the team is a big part of soccer, and the team does a lot of team bonding to make the connection stronger.
“I think the team bonding is really good. It’s helped us create friendships and bonds that we can carry on even when the season is over, ” Haworth said.
Along with learning soccer and getting the opportunity to play, comes forming bonds with the other players and having fun on and off the field.
Spicka agrees that the connection between players is very important. “I would say the team aspect of soccer is my favorite part. There is not one position that doesn’t rely on another one. So I think it’s cool when you get multiple strings of passes together. I think when you see the progression from start to finish, of all of it, it just really makes it cool and it gets everyone involved.”