Brianna MacKay | On 04, Oct 2018

When Hudson Catholic opened its doors to girls for the first time 2009, there were no immediate plans for a girls soccer team.

It took three years of female Hawks attending Hudson for the school to get one, and now six years later, the team is still going strong. To learn more about how the team has been doing the last few years and how the current season is looking, The Commentator sat down with senior captains Savannah Martinez, Felicity Flores, and Arlette Huesca.

One of the first things we wanted to find out from the captains is how their personal soccer careers had been affected by their team’s many coaching changes during the last seasons. For Flores, she looked at the positive of the changes and how it it has improved her soccer skills.

“I feel like the coaches help me through different positions,” Flores said. “My coach sophomore year, Coach Garland… I felt like he helped me be more of a defensive player because he really helped us out with more of a defensive play, while this year with Coach Victor … is helping with more of a different position in midfield.”

Martinez and Huesca, on the other hand, looked at how it affected not only their careers but the careers of all the girls on the team.

“The fact that we haven’t had a coach for two years in a row definitely affects the girls who continue to come back for the program. [With] different coaching styles and different ways that we play …  It’s never been consistent, and I feel like that has taken a toll on some of the girls,” Martinez explained.

Though she feels the coaching changes haven’t had the best effect on the girls on the team, she does think there current coach, Coach Victor Pesantez, coming back for his second season with Hudson Catholic makes up for all the changes before.

“The fact that our coach has returned this year, it’s a silver lining,” Martinez stated.

Huesca shared that same opinion, saying, “For the first time in Hudson Catholic Girls Soccer history, we have a coach return and it’s been a really big deal for the girls and I because we feel that someone is dedicated to the program.”

With Coach Victor and the other coaches the team has had during the past four years, the team has continued to improve and grow, but there is always room for improvement on any team. So we asked the girls about what improvements they feel they and their teammates have made during their time playing and what improvements need to be made.

“So an improvement is probably in my character. You have to have a lot of sportsmanship to play soccer, so I definitely have improved in that aspect,” Huesca explained.

Martinez acknowledged the fact that the school still even having a team is a big improvement because there was a time when having enough girls to make a whole team was in question.

“I think the fact that we even still have a team is a huge improvement because most people would have thought our program would have been canceled by now,” she stated.

Along improvements the team has made, there are also many goals they aim to set. 

“One of my personal goals is probably to make the most out of this year, out of my senior year, that’s the year that I’m captain,” Huesca responded.

She went further into her overall goals for the team as well.

“The goal is always to win division championship,” Huesca stated. Martinez and Flores were also asked about their personal and team goals.

“As a captain, my goal for the team this year is to leave behind a good environment for the girls to make it a working team…the goal is to become a family and from there win some games,” Martinez answered.  

Flores had a similar answer, saying, “I feel like our goal this year is to work as a team.”

And when it comes to Flores’ personal goals, she said, “My goal for this year is just to become a better player myself.”

Our final question to the girls was if they had any words of advice for the future captains of the girls soccer team.

“My advice for future captains of the team and the rest of the team is to always communicate. I feel like without communication our team wouldn’t be as good… communication is the most important thing for the team to have,” Flores started off by saying.

“Have patience,” was Martinez’s advice for the future captain of the team.

As for Huesca, her wisdom was simple.

“Be a leader,” she advised.