Faith, confidence reignites MHS girls soccer program

For a team that secured only three wins out of 14 games the previous season, new head coach Mallory Miller had her work cut out for her.

When tryouts came in November, the Maricopa High School girl’s soccer coach wiped the slate clean.

“I told them, even during tryouts, I don’t want to know if you’re a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. I don’t want to know if you were on varsity last year. I don’t even want to know if you’ve played soccer,” she said. “If you show me that you work hard and if you show me that you have a decent amount of skill, I said, ‘You’re going to make my team hands down.’”

The final result was a varsity team made up of eight freshmen, seven seniors, two juniors and one sophomore. Some who played the year prior didn’t make the cut.

The Rams are 7-6 overall, and 1-3 in their section – already an improvement over last season’s final record of 3-10-1.

Miller, who played college soccer at the University of Arizona, has held coaching positions for more than a decade, including assistant varsity coach at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson.

Since the start of the season, Miller has been trying to change the mindset of players used to walking off the field with a scoreboard declaring no victory. She’s attempted to instill confidence in her players – something her predecessor, she thinks, did not do.

“I didn’t know who the coaches were, but I don’t think they had a coach that actually believed in them,” she said.

Players who’ve been on the team in years past have expressed the same sentiment.

Zeni Ramirez, 17, a senior who’s played three years on varsity, said there have been several coaching changes during her time as a player.

“I think this is my favorite year because we’ve got a coach who really aspires to make us that better team,” Ramirez said.

The 17-year-old said what really stands out to her is Miller’s “passion for the game.”

“I think that’s my favorite part about coming out here every day is knowing that she’s here for us,” she said. “So it makes me want to work all the more harder for her and for the team.”

The team’s highlight of the season, so far, has been finishing first at the Apache Junction Gold Cup Tournament on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4. The team played five games over the course of two days, defeating Coolidge, Apache Junction, Globe, Tanque Verde and Combs.

“Just seeing how successful and how much confidence they grew in that tournament, it was just amazing,” Miller said on the week following the tournament.

The coach explained that confidence on the field is linked to the caliber of teams her players are facing.

Unlike other cities, there aren’t many opportunities in Maricopa for team members to play soccer outside the school season, Miller noted. For other teams, it’s a different story.

“When they do play those teams that have played year-round, they just feel like they don’t belong on the field,” Miller said. “Trying to get them to believe that they do and that they believe in themselves has been our goal this first half of the season.”

When talking about the tournament, Andrea Perez, the team’s lone sophomore, said support from the coaches was a big factor.

“They drilled into our head that we had (to have) faith in ourselves,” she said.

Although the team has done well during the first half of the season, Miller said there are several areas the players need to improve upon.
“Communication’s definitely not our strongest,” she said at a recent team practice while shouting players conducted a scrimmage nearby.

“You wouldn’t recognize it at a practice like this, because it seems like they all are, but when we get in the game, it’s like they’re dead silent.”

In fact, Miller wasn’t planning on having a team captain this season until junior Kourtney Brown, 16, stepped up as a “vocal leader.” This took place just before the tournament – about mid-way through the season.

Miller said the team had been doing a lot of running because of lack of effort that was shown on the field.

“Kourtney was the one that stepped up and just said ‘Hey, come on guys, we can do it,’” Miller said.

Brown said the team is “pumped up” for the future because of the new coaching staff.

“I like this coaching staff because they actually have the desire to be here,” she said.

***ADVERTISEMENT***Asked what the players want to accomplish this season, Ramirez, the senior, said the team’s biggest goal is to “improve ourselves.” She then added, “and to, you know, not be I guess the laughingstock of the high school.”

“People don’t really consider women’s soccer as a real sport here as they do football or anything,” she explained.

Winning the tournament, she said, shows the team is improving the soccer program.

The team faces Casa Grande High School at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be played at Maricopa High School.  

View Gallery for team photo from Apache Junction Gold Cup Tournament: Top row from left back Jasmine Acosta, Gisele Egbe, Zeni Ramirez, Nattaly Campos, Dannon Peters, Ingvild Lappegard, Megan Clayburn,  Katherine Siebert, Andrea Perez, Alexis Skiffington; kneeling from left Laura Hernandez, Rachael Perez, Jana Schroeten, Kourtney Brown, Amanda Maciel, Becca Campos (JV Player), Kennedy Wiemiller, Idalia “Kiki” Ramirez. Coach Mallory Miller in front.