GVHS Boys Soccer: The Journey of Senior Year
Senior group picture after Senior Night Victory
Their final year in high school fires up with the emotions in all the thirteen seniors’ hearts, making it a year to remember.
One final year to make a change in the GVHS Boys Soccer program and they will not take it for granted.
They want to make it a year and an impact that is memorable.
Going into their senior season, everyone was anxious. They were nervous about the high expectations that were set for the seniors, after years of training and experience; not expecting anything that can happen, yet they are ready for whatever is to come. Getting the rhythm with the new varsity team was uneasy at first; a team with incredible potential that needed tuning.
I have had an amazing experience, the best. This year by far has been my favorite year. I think it’s mainly because of the camaraderie that this team has built, the brotherhood has grown exponentially throughout the years. That brotherhood, I believe, has made this year my best year, performance wise.
— Arya Soleimani, Varsity team aptain
When pre-season games started, it was a time for the seniors to demonstrate what they will bring to the table once season starts. A 3-1 unfortunate loss against the Knights for the first game and then a three win streak against Lancaster, Fillmore, and Magnolia Academy following. To end off the pre-season, the varsity team gets one more unfortunate loss against Quartz Hill.
At the kickoff of the regular season, the seniors were not as hopeful about how it would go. They won against Castaic but then went on a 3 game losing streak against Hart, Canyon, and Saugus. When winter break started, the season came to a halt leaving the seniors with mixed emotions on how they think the season will go from there. They started hard training and focused more on where the team was at that point in time, they reflected on their flaws that showed in the games. They improved on any cons that showed during practices, repeating drills over and over until they saw precision. Their improvement quickly showed as the seniors had 2 non-league games in which they went 2-0 each.
Season resumed once more and unfortunately didn’t have the outcome the team was hopeful for.. They had draws and a horrible loss against Hart in which they knew it should not have happened. The team was brought down to their lowest point, having little to no hope to reach their playoff dreams. Playoffs just seem like a fantasy that would never happen. Until a spark in the team lightened up, which they all needed.
Golden Valley Boys Soccer’s head coach, Stephen Evison, had commented, “At the beginning of the year, the team noticed that we had so much talent and we had 16 guys who were fighting for 10 spots and it became very competitive. It started to separate us and the players went into their groups and we never came together as a team. After the Saugus loss, I begged the guys not to waste this opportunity and that we were too good to be in this spot. And honestly, something clicked within them and we really haven’t lost a game since then; except against Hart with 10 men.”
Stephen Evison, the coach for the GVHS Boys Soccer program, gathered the team together and gave them one final talk that gave the seniors the boost they needed.
The team starts to take training much more seriously and every time they step on the field they give it their all. The seniors were locked in and were ready to go for it all. The varsity team has made the biggest turnaround ever in Golden Valley history, winning 4 games in a row allowing them to qualify for playoffs.
The varsity team captain, Arya Soleimani, expresses, “I have had an amazing experience, the best. This year by far has been my favorite year. I think it’s mainly because of the camaraderie that this team has built, the brotherhood has grown exponentially throughout the years. That brotherhood, I believe, has made this year my best year, performance wise.”
Former varsity soccer player, Arthur Betancourt, had shared his thoughts about the soccer season by expressing, “It’s been a rollercoaster, I remember in the beginning of the year, we came with this drive to win…In the beginning we started off pretty good…We won our first league game against Castaic 4-0; and midway through the season we hit a rough spot. We went on a 3 game loss streak; everybody thought it was over, you could see it in their faces that nobody wanted to be there…We went on to play Castaic and we tied them, then the same week we lost 6-1 to Hart, so it was a really demoralizing two games. We then ended up going on a 4 win streak and made the playoffs.”
From the first half to second half of the season, the program had made a huge turn that impacted the overall season for the seniors.
Season may be over but their journey has not ended yet. Playoffs are on their way and the seniors are going to give it everything to make history before they say goodbye. The program is filled with lots of talent and they will overcome anything that stands in their way. Will they go all the way to the title? Only time will tell. Be sure to come support the program at their playoffs and watch how far they have come, they have made history this season and are going for it all.
Brandon Castillo is a staff writer for the Journalism Sports team. He is a young and talented senior ready to express what he loves the most through the power of writing, sports. He’s been part of the GVHS Boys Soccer Program for 4 years, did Cross Country for a year as well, and 2 years for Track & Field. Brandon has received multiple awards throughout high school in which he doesn’t remember because his hard work is recognized more by him than just an award. He’s passionate about writing a lot of sports articles, mostly Futbol(not called soccer). Growing up he’s always had a background of his entire family loving Futbol and that passion grew more and more as he watched and played the beautiful sport. Being part of the school’s newspaper and his journalism sports team was a way for him to express to everyone at school and push forward all the things he is passionate about. Not only that, he feels a sense of happiness being able to have a family in his journalism class like...
