New Brighton, section AA, and a record holder on injury reserve. These are all changes that the past section A champs have to adapt to with this new year. There may be a lot of new, but it’s old news that they are dominating their section so far.
At the beginning of the season, the Freedom girls were introduced to their past rivals, New Brighton, but this time it wasn’t the 11 players on the other side of the field trying to win a section championship. It was five new players added to the Freedom roster to compete for a position to hopefully make the team better. So far, it seems that the new inclusion has done just that, made them better. It’s not new that the team is having a winning pre-season, but it’s new that they are having it in a new section with new players.
“It wasn’t hard to adjust to playing with the Freedom girls. Freedom dominated the past two years. Adding the girls from New Brighton, in my opinion, just added to the skill level. The biggest difference playing with Freedom is probably the commute everyday, going back and forth is kind of a hassle but we make it work,” Paige Murray said.
A new section may not sound like that difficult of a change, especially with more players. A new section doesn’t entitle more players on the field or better players to play with. A new section does entitle harder teams to play against, which the girls know all too well. Last year, Freedom played against Quaker Valley, a section AA team, and lost 4-1, but that was without New Brighton playing with them.
“We definitely have a few more players and are definitely very skilled, so technically we are a little stronger than we were last year. We have a lot more technical players out on the field,” Coach Colin Williams said.
The team has also had to overcome an injury on Alexa Schwab’s foot from a game on Aug. 6 at Beaver Local, Ohio. Schwab is also the record holder for most goals in a season; therefore, depending on how the team gets around this on learning how to play, they may or may not take a hit for the worse. Like mentioned previously, the team seems to be stable with regards of losing an exceptional player. They are able to work around this problem, as they are still playing well and winning their season.
“It’s probably accredited to our preparation. Not only did we spend weeks conditioning, but the majority of our starting players play on other teams in the off season in order to get themselves to the level we are at,” Schwab said.
Throughout all the new that has been happening this year, the girls have been able to overcome it all with their new team. On Sept. 12, Freedom and New Brighton took on a team that Freedom couldn’t beat on their own. They played Quaker Valley, and this time, the outcome was different in a great way.
They changed the past from a loss to a win in the future with more goals scored total in this game. Not only that, but they were all scored by Freedom and New Brighton, giving the girls a shutout. The end score was 6-0, a single goal scored by six separate people: Myla Sharpless, Cora Mankevich, Chloe Keller, Alexsia Barlamas and two new feet, Lyndsee Monac and Michaela Walkins, both from New Brighton.