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Hopedale - Local Town Pages

Hopedale Girls Soccer Enjoy modified season

Nov 26, 2020 05:58PM ● By Chris Tremblay
HGS team . Courtesy photos by Steve Bassignani.
As the fall high school sports season drew closer, Coaches and athletes throughout the state were all wondering if they were going to have a season or not. Hopedale’s coach Leah Siefring knew that if the Blue Raiders were going to play some sort of season, it was going to be with a young team made up of a lot of girls who were new to the varsity level. Luckily, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) announced there would be a modified season with a handful of new rules during this pandemic to keep the athletes as safe as they could. “Coming in our main focus was on building our skills and camaraderie as a team to become a cohesive unit,” the Hopedale Coach said. “There was definitely a lot of uncertainty as this year went on with Covid if we would even have a season and didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully, we are going to have a soccer season with all new rules.” The girls would always have to wear masks and Siefring said. Although it was tough at first, the girls have done a great job adjusting. In addition to their masks there would be no deliberate contact or slide tackling; the focus would be on the play of the game. The biggest changes would be that there would be no throw-ins, kick-ins or heading of the ball. While the throw-ins and kick-ins wouldn’t be a big problem for the girls, heading took some getting use to. “The biggest challenge was the heading; we were actually trying to unteach the girls everything they learned,” Siefring said. “It is not a typical season as the girls will have to go back on everything that they’ve learned and adjust the to the new rules.” As the pre-season began, Siefring wanted to dramatically improve the girls’ skills, whether they were an eighth-grader playing for the first time of a senior captain with experience. So far things have been going very well as everyone on the team has improved upon their technical skills according to the Coach. Although the team is currently winless, the girls are enjoying the sport and are happy to be out on the field doing something they enjoy with their friends by their sides. The Blue Raiders are captained during this unusual season by three senior captains: Maddie Sullivan (outside back), Sonya Terando (outside and center back) and Kayla Lelio (center midfield). Possessing such a young team the trio of captains will be expected to not only be role models and leaders for the younger girls, but they should also be setting expectations on and off the field. Lelio, who was an outside midfielder last season, will be looked upon to get the team moving offensively. “As an outside midfielder last year Kayla gave us a little bit of an offensive spark,” the Blue Raiders Coach said. “Her role has changed this year, but I am still going to be relying on her to supply us with her offensive play, Kayla is the heart of this team.” Hopedale graduated a lot of senior attack-minded athletes from last season, so needless to say this abbreviated season will be sort of a rebuilding year in that aspect of the game. One girl who has impressed the coach in the early stage of the season has been eighth-grader Emily Oliver playing in her first year as a varsity athlete. “She’s got an excellent soccer mind with technical skills that are beyond her years,” Siefring said. “She is an extremely hard worker in the middle of the field and looks like she’ll be able to provide us with some offensive fire power.” Defensively junior Lilah Casey has improved dramatically from last year and will provide the Blue Raiders with a defensive presence in the back. At the time of this writing Hopedale only had six games remaining on their schedule. During those games, the Coach is looking for the team to start moving the ball deeper into the offensive end and find the back of the net. Siefring would also like to secure the team’s first win of the season. “We’ve been able to create some offensive opportunities, but we have not been able to finish,” Siefring said. “Once the girls become comfortable with their play, I think that we’ll be ok in the scoring category.” Partaking in a season that has not seen a win to date, Siefring trying to keep her girls motivated and to work harder after each loss. While they would all love to put a W on their record, they girls are grateful to be actually playing the sport. “Of course, we would like to win a game, but the girls are very happy to be out on the field making the most of what they were given this season,” the Hopedale Coach said. “With the way that the previous season went (due to the pandemic) we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to be playing outside. Who knows what’s going to happen with upcoming season the way things are starting to go (C