The Blue & White

By Allison Kelly

Girls soccer has welcomed a new coach, Kayla Grover! She is a K-4 physical education teacher at the Timony. Coach Kayla is also the founder, owner, and head coach of the Atlantic Keeper Academy, which provides goalkeeper training for boys and girls ages 9 and up.

Girls soccer has also welcomed three new captains, juniors Stephanie Tardugno and Kaitlyn Wrisley, and senior captain Sam Matarazzo, alongside returning captain, senior Emily Donovan.

I interviewed Kaityln and asked her how she felt being a first time captain, she responded, saying, “I look up to Emily and Sam as role models.” When asked how she felt being co captains with a different group of girls, Emily said, “Last year my co captains and I worked great together and that continued this year as well. We all balance each other out and know which role is ours.”

This season for soccer has been different from the previous years, as there are now only two teams: junior varsity and varsity. Cuts were made during tryouts to differentiate who made varsity and jv. “We were unfortunately low on numbers this year, and making three teams may have been hard to do. So making a few cuts helps with not having so many people on each team,” said Stephanie Tardugno. She hopes that next season there will be enough girls to form three teams again.

During the summer the girls worked hard in preparing for the season, with captains practices ran by the captains and strength and conditioning ran by Catano Performances five days a week. “It helped us create such a better bond and we improved a lot on footwork during the summer,” said Sam Matarazzo.

All four of them are excited for the season and are working towards their goal of going to states!