Years in the Making: The Senior Girls’ Soccer Success

By Hana Hollingshead and Elaine Lewis

A very successful season

Other than the infamous senior ultimate team and volleyball teams, the Templeton Senior girls soccer team may have been one of the most successful sports teams that came from this - typically artistic - school this year. The senior girls went undefeated for the entire season until their final game against Eric Hamber on May 15th, the first soccer final that Templeton had been to in around four decades. This included friendlies against Eric Hamber and Van Tech, both infamous soccer powerhouses. This impressive statistic also included the Argyle Junior Girls Soccer Tournament in the middle of April, with nine goals scored, and zero against. The girls brought home a plaque for this achievement which can be found in the office.

A long, hard-fought battle

The growth of Templeton girls soccer has not been an easy or simple journey. Around four years ago, there was not even a girls soccer team. In 2021, a group of determined Grade 8 students at Templeton started a junior girls soccer team by recruiting their friends and a few Grade 9s. About half the team had experience playing club soccer, while the rest joined simply to help make up the numbers. They began the season with some tough losses, but over time they surprised everyone with how much they improved. That first season laid the foundation for a strong future. Since then, Templeton's girls soccer team has grown from being the underdogs into being a confident and competitive senior team.

Until that team, Templeton hadn't had a senior girls soccer team since 2009, with all of the teams before being junior teams. One particular person who has been absolutely instrumental in this growth is Anthony Hempell. The coach of this team since its beginning, Anthony has given countless hours to this team, both organizing the infinite things that go into school sports and coaching the girls with endless patience and positivity. Ms. McVey, Templeton's new Mini School English teacher, has also contributed so much to this group, with her fantastic tips, endless logistical help, and gracious hosting of many meetings in her classroom. Finally, the team would not be nearly what it is today without its co-captains, Freya Richter and Annabella King. With their incredible leadership on and off the field, these girls have garnered so much support and awareness of a team which has gone unnoticed for so long.

Future plans and aspirations

Due to the success of this past season, Templeton is planning to have a tier 1 senior girls soccer team in 2026. This begs the question: will the team still be wearing volleyball jerseys? Well, if the team has anything to say about this, then absolutely not! To pay for these jerseys, the girls are carrying/have carried out two fundraising initiatives: Freezie Fridays and the Moja Coffee fundraiser. Freezie Fridays are fairly self-explanatory, with the team selling freezies out front of the school every Friday until school ends. The Moja Coffee fundraiser was a partnership with Moja Coffee on Commercial Drive, which involved the girls selling bags of coffee and making a cut of the profits. The team is very excited for the years to come, as Templeton soccer continues to make a name for itself and grow into a name to remember.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Columns

Image
By Megan Wong   Have you ever wondered where iconic architectural pillars came from? Well, the most common ones used today are considered the Classical Orders of Architecture which originated in ancient Greece and Rome. The five styles are called the Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders. They were used to define the style of the people living in certain areas of Europe and the era it was created in. Ionic Order The Ionic Order was created in ancient Greece by the Ionian Greeks in the 6th century. The column is primarily known for its two volutes as it gives the impression that the column is two-sided. It is also considered to be a more feminine version of the Doric column where the volutes and dart ornaments represent the female anatomy of ovaries and eggs. Others say that the volutes resemble scrolls to represent communication at the time. The order was created in Ionia, which we now know as Turkiye, and created some problems for architects at the time ...
Read more

Archery Club

Image
By Anna Segelken Templeton’s new Archery Club had its first meeting on Friday, October 4th. Ten people came out to shoot some arrows and have some fun. As president April Vander Ster says, archery is “good for training certain muscles, and for endurance and such, but I think more importantly, it’s something that can help with your mental health”. Members can expect an environment of calm, concentration, and community. I had the pleasure of trying out some archery, and it made me feel powerful, grounded, and connected to the past. Archery has been practiced for centuries, with evidence of the bow and arrow dating back approximately 72,000 to 60,000 years. Though the development of firearms rendered archers obsolete in warfare, the practice of archery has remained for hunting and sport, both competitive and recreational, like this club. The Archery Club will continue to meet during FIT on Fridays, in the small gym. Vander Ster is eager...
Read more

Getaway Car

Image
By Phoenix Nguyen   No, nothing good starts in a getaway car. The ties were black, and the lies were white; in shades of grey in candlelight. I hated it. I hated how we were. I hate that I was chasing make-belief status. I knew you tried to change the ending, but alas, Peter still lost Wendy. You never saw it coming, so I too blinded myself. ‘Tis was another fine evening in June. The chill of the northerly wind having given away in the late afternoon to a lovely warm stillness and clarity in the air. Far different from the atmosphere inside the car, far different from the cages and chains in my throat trapping those fierce claps from bursting my heart open, fluttering words up my throat, throwing up the butterflies that were pacing my mind since forever. Wise men say love is a rebellious bird, coming and going, passing by unbeknownst to us. If such is true, then I ought to be the wintriest place for any bird, for I have never experienced th...
Read more