By: Olivia Bowersox and Katherine Medina
The end of the year is coming up which means summer is starting, along with fall sports preparations. Salisbury High School’s girls soccer is one of Salisbury’s fall sports and coached by Mr. Babyak, Mr. DeOliveira, and Mrs. DeOliveira. The official start date of girl’s soccer is August 16th, and make sure you spread the word. Girl’s soccer is eagerly looking for new girls to play, so, even if you’ve never played, reach out to Mrs. DeOliveira if interested.
The team is looking to build a summer league team, beginning in the end of May/beginning of June. Games are, most likely, to be scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, hosted at Whitehall High School, at around 5:30-6:00 with two 25 minute halves. Summer league is a great place for girls who are interested but have never played or don’t have time in the fall. Along with summer league, a great place to try the sport out is open fields. The team has started open field practices on either Wednesdays or Thursdays from around 5:00-6:00, and they’re open to anyone who is interested.
We caught up with Coach Babyak after practice in hopes that he could answer a few questions, and he delivered. We started off by asking, how can we grow this team physically and mentally? Coach Babyak replied, “Our teams have been strong over the years because of the bond that the players develop. Being able to hold open soccer sessions and playing together in summer league again are important. But it will also be nice when we can restart things like team pasta parties. We want every player to understand their value to this team. We want to get to the point where we are all motivating each other, and we are all working for each other.”
Continuing the interview, we asked, what are some goals for this season? Coach responded “First, it will be nice to have some normalcy in our schedule to be able to develop consistency. We want to be able to improve as individuals and as a team every practice and every game. If we continue to develop as a team throughout the season we would expect to make league and district playoffs.”
We then proceeded to ask what important values do the coaches find in a player? In response Coach Babyak said, “Developing skills is important – but most important is attitude and heart. Having a good work ethic in practice and in a game goes far. Do you have the drive and desire to improve yourself and inspire your teammates to do the same? Can you express joy and passion when you play? Can you pick yourself and your teammates up when the game gets tough? Such are the values on which you can build success.”
With the school year ending and summer right around the corner, there has never been a better time to join SHS girls soccer. The team holds out open arms throughout the summer with open fields and an open summer league team. You’ll gain skills, life lessons, and endurance while making friends and having fun.
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