The Annandale Girls Varsity Soccer team just finished their three days of tryouts. The program has always had a large number of girls competing for spots on the team. With around seventy girls trying out this season, the players were given numbers to pin onto their shirts so that they could be easily identified.
The Annandale Girls Varsity Soccer team is coached by Jake Vaughn. Vaughn is also a club coach for BRYC Elite (Braddock Road Youth Club). He has experience coaching the boys soccer program at Annandale prior to his switch to the girls program in the 2021-2022 school year. Last year, he led the team to their most successful season in over ten years, earning the title of Coach of the Year. Even though there are many girls who try out, the roster size has always been relatively small, especially compared to boys soccer.
Vaughn said, “Picking that final roster number can be difficult, but it’s a balance of preparing the team to be competitive while also getting players the time on the field they need to develop,”
It’s his third year as head girls varsity coach, and Vaughn has always carried a small team, capping the roster at 17 last year and 18 this year.
“I’d rather that 19th or 20th player be starting and crushing it on JV because that’s better for their development as a player,” Explained Vaughn.
No matter how many players are on the team, the goal remains the same for everyone involved; a chance at the district championships, which the team fell just short of last season.
Junior Sara Nagle said, “Our goals for the season are to continue what we started last year and keep our winning record going. We want to try and make it to the finals in the district/region tournament,”
Nagle is a returning Varsity player and is the team’s goalkeeper, and she thinks that, “The team chemistry this year is really good, we have a lot of returning players and players coming up from JV who we have known for awhile, so everyone’s already really close with one another,”
Sophomore Lilly Flores agrees with Nagle, “Our goal for the team is to be able to win districts this season and make memories as a team,”
To make memories, the team often does bonding activities like potlucks or dinners at players’ houses, or trips to Chick Fil A after practices.
The team is able to bond through these outings, and tryouts also provided a way for the players to get closer to each other.
Flores said, “a lot of us don’t really see each other during school so tryouts was a great way to reunite with the girls and get back to playing with each other,”
Senior Alex Porter agrees that the team chemistry started off strong with tryouts, “From the start at tryouts, everyone was so excited to be back together and play again,”
The team graduated six players last year, and with those players gone, the team has to find a way to fill the holes,
“The only weaknesses I would say we might have would be adjusting to our new line up, we lost 6 players last year, and that can change the outcome of the season a lot,” Porter said.
With these new players, the team will have to find where they’ll fit. Porter said, “Even with new players on varsity, I don’t think it will take long for everyone to grow close to each other,”
The team faces many schools that are far away and new to the schedule, with their first scrimmage being against South Lakes High school on February 29th. Although they haven’t played some of these teams for awhile, players are looking forward to the new challenges.
Porter said, “Overall, i’m really excited to see how our season goes and how much we can improve,”
Only one short week into the spring season, the players think this season will be a good one.
Flores said, “I know it’s going to be a great season,”
If you want to follow along with the Atoms this season, you can follow them on Instagram @notahvgvs
