The Keystone soccer season recently ended with the team heading to playoffs! To learn more about the season, I interviewed one of the three soccer captains, Anneliese Coleman. 

The Keystone soccer team is a co-ed team. Every soccer season, the team plays other school soccer teams around the district two times. Afterward, the top four teams progress to the playoffs, where they play the top four teams from other districts. Since the Keystone team had many players this year, a portion of the team, nicknamed the “travel squad,” would play at games. 

This season in particular, according to Anneliese, was difficult for the team, as the graduating class of 2021 had some of the best players on the team, the majority of their starters. Therefore, this year, there had to be a new lineup, new leaders, and a new team dynamic. However, throughout the interview, Anneliese stressed the ameliorated sense of community and the improvement the team experienced. 

One of the first changes the team enacted was optional practices during the pre-season and during days practices were canceled. With the coach’s permission, the team would head over to the Olmos’s Basin and go through their regular one-and-a-half-hour practice routine: stretch, run laps, practice ball work, and more. 

Another improvement was an enhanced sense of community. Whereas last year the seniors and captains seemed more distant, this year Anneliese and the other captains interacted with all grade levels throughout the team, started a group chat to keep in constant communication, and even planned lunch sessions to reflect on the game and eat. Anneliese fondly related one lunch when they brought mounds of chips from Whataburger, and the team bonded through devouring the jalapeño chips. 

In the end, through the team’s strive to improve and their broadened sense of community, the team was able to beat a team that crushed them earlier in the season. With the end of the season, the soccer team as a whole was able to grow, and I look forward to what new heights Anneliese and the future team captains will take the team next year.