Throughout the years, the Sentinel women’s Varsity soccer team has been considered the “underdogs” while competing for best in the West and for State Champions. However, the soccer team seems to be finding more success than usual this season. As of right now, they are placed first in the West bracket. How did they achieve this, and how did they do it? The team is improving this through hard work, time, and learning how to work together.
Team Cohesion
The Varsity women’s soccer team used to run as a hierarchy. The seniors would often flaunt their seniority and make the freshmen and sophomores do most of the work that the seniors and juniors were unwilling to do. However, some of the tasks are passed down to the lower classes because the seniors and juniors are no longer required by the coaches to do it.
Liza Shadow, a senior on the varsity team, observed “There was a lot of drama and so many issues with that, especially last year in my junior year. My freshman year wasn’t bad, and I think this year is really good.”
Overall, team connections were lacking due to an absence of people trying to build significant bonds with others outside of their age group. Most of the players that play for Sentinel also play club teams with the other players within their age group. This causes cliques to form and reasons as to why the athletes preferred talking to their friends and not the other players.
Since the beginning of this year, observers are more likely to see valuable interactions between all of the players on and off the field. Mr. Jannusch, the Athletics Director at Sentinel states, “The last two years I’ve experienced, the team seems to be very cohesive”.
As the team expands and changes, the upperclassmen have changed their principles and some of the rules so that the younger players would be included as well. Before practice, the upperclassmen can be seen chatting with the lower-classmen.
Personal improvement
The coaching staff at Sentinel for the women’s soccer team has stayed consistent for the past seven seasons, with most seasons leading up to success. Dan Lochridge is the head coach for the girls’ varsity team, assisted by Peyton Agnew and Maddie Vincent.
Outside of the Sentinel soccer season, Lochridge helps coach for the local Strikers FC team in Missoula. He has helped coach a good deal of players who go to all three high schools within Missoula and has watched them continue to grow.
As the club teams improved, the players would see tougher opponents, and grow as individual players. Lochridge disclosed, “The girls teams of twenty years ago didn’t have the technical skill and I don’t think that they were tactically as smart as the teams that we have coming through now. I credit that mostly to the club programs that these kids are coming up in now are just at a higher level”.
As the soccer clubs received more funding and coaches, the clubs began to spread their program outward. This made it possible for there to be more opportunities for the young players coming in who want to continuously play to the best of their abilities. This includes them being able to participate in more tournaments and have more travel opportunities.
Around the same time that the soccer clubs began to expand, the current high school soccer players were participating in the clubs. Along with this came the ability to connect with everyone on their teams, find their own version of success, and push others around them to be the best they could be.
Team Improvement
In years prior, the Sentinel women’s varsity soccer team has seen all types of success, whether that be just overall improvement, or fighting for the state title post regular season.
Most of the players this season didn’t know what to expect going into this school year. According to Teya Lochridge, one of the varsity co-captains, claims “This year coming into my senior year, I had no idea how the team this year is gonna go, and we’ve ended up doing the best I have in all of my four years.”
Although the Sentinel women’s varsity team had gotten close to achieving their goal of winning the state championship, they ended up falling short, placing in the top five, but never number first. During their regular season, the Sentinel women’s soccer team placed well but didn’t end up in the number one spot either.
This is the first year since Daniel Lochridge has been coaching where the varsity girl’s team has placed first in the West bracket. In previous seasons, he placed close, but never where this team has taken him. More often than not, Sentinel places lower, such as third or second, in the West bracket. This year, the team has placed first overall, passing the teams that came before.
According to Lovis Tegeder, the other varsity co-captain, claims, “I definitely think the team has improved both on the field and off the field. It’s a way better environment now and we’re more comfortable with each other than when I was a freshman”.
With the change of leadership and the new players coming in, more connections have been formed on the team, which helps to promote a better environment for everyone. In addition to this, the new bonds helped the soccer team to perform better off the field as well.
Now that the women’s soccer Varsity team is reaching the end of the regular season, they are hoping for more success on the field. Now, they are beginning to compete for state, hoping to bring the title of first home to Sentinel. It is up to the student body at Sentinel to continue and support the team on and off the field.
