The End Goal and the Goals in Between

This year’s Mitty women’s soccer program has had one exciting season. With many great wins and some tough losses, the varsity team has battled their way through and is now towards the end of their season and on their way to NorCals. 

With the NFHS Coach of the year, JT Hanley, the team has excellent leadership. He constantly emphasizes the idea that the girls need to succeed the “right” way. This means that the team works together to earn their success through hard work, never relying on one person to carry the weight or expecting a lack of effort to be considered okay. With assistant coaches who are Mitty Soccer alumni, the girls are constantly reminded about the legacy of the program and the impact that they will leave on future athletes.

However, what truly sets this team apart from others is the culture and the team’s traditions. 

It is clear that for the women’s soccer team, bonding and chemistry is crucial on and off the field. With things like pasta nights before games and other bonding opportunities, the girls create strong relationships that directly translate to their teamwork and flow on the field. Junior Athena Tsakiris, says, “The women’s program, not just varsity, refers to one another as ‘sisters’. Our bond as a program is not defined by what team we are currently on, but the familiarity and love we all have for one another.” Many of the girls are still in contact with their graduated “sisters” and they are still wished good luck on big game days and reminded that they have a group of college students cheering for them around the country. 

In addition to their culture, the Mitty women’s soccer program has many unique traditions: one of the most important being “the Brick”. Before each game the women’s varsity team gathers in a circle to kiss and pray around the brick—a tradition that has been going since 2012. This reminds the team of the players that came before them and their legacies that the team has a responsibility to uphold. This keeps them grounded and gets them ready for any opponent they may encounter. 

The team itself has had its ups and downs all season. With devastating defeats to St. Francis and St. Ignatius, the team has worked hard to make sure those errors don’t happen again. This is shown in their dominating 1-0 performance against SI the second time playing the team, when the Wildcats were on the defensive the entire game. Their 1-0 win against Woodside also shows this dominating presence on the field, as they shut out a Stanford commit and were able to play a smart defense and a relentless offense.

Freshman Murphy Walsh is an absolute force to be reckoned with, scoring 11 goals in the season (with 2 more having been called back) and helping the Monarchs finish 4th in CCS. Sophomore Jordan Geis and senior Jennavieve Ordonez have both caused other teams difficulty in their midfield, where both their defensive prowess and their impressive ball handling skills have cut teams apart . And of course, the Mitty team cannot be as successful as they are without the smart defending of senior Nira Quintero. The 5’2 center back has shut down anyone who is thrown against her, with speed and technical ability unmatched by any other center back in the league.

After a short season last year, the women’s soccer team has put in tons of work to get back to dominating teams on the field. With a CCS quarterfinal upset against Number 3 ranked Woodside, the team went into the CCS Semifinals with an automatic bid to NorCals. In the semifinal game, the team fell to #2 ranked St. Francis in a tight 2-1 defeat. But with NorCal right around the corner, will the team be able to pull off the wins there?