With the start of the girls soccer season has come a new head coach as well. Following the resignation of long-time head coach Arlan Vomhof, head soccer coach Joe Waldron was picked for the role; prior to this, Waldron had been an assistant coach for the team.

Waldron, who has been a head coach for other high school and college programs in the past, feels that the shift from being an assistant coach to the head coach makes his work much more enjoyable since he is more involved.

“As a head coach, you have a level of investment that is considerably higher, and it’s a lot more hard work,” Waldron said. “There’s a lot of other stuff that you do that’s not directly related to the game: Phone calls with people, different things you have to do with KSHSAA and things like rules meetings.”

Right now, Waldron’s focus is on trying to get the team back to a state similar to how it operated before COVID-19

“This season has been important just to get back together, to reconnect with the kids, to have them reconnect with one another and get out and do something that we love to do,” Waldron said. “For one. It’s important we do some things with the community that we haven’t been able to do. We’re just trying to get back to what we’ve always done.”

Junior Quincy Hubert, who has played with the team for the last three years, agrees that there has been a stronger emphasis on team bonding and that the development of team culture has been “a lot more focused on this year.”

“I think [the focus on team culture] is going to build a lot more bonds between the varsity team and the JV team,” Hubert said. “I feel like it’s going to create a more family or community feeling on the team.”

Hubert also thinks that developing a stronger bond with the team is necessary to have a more successful and enjoyable season.

“Being able to work as a team is our first challenge to overcome, but I feel like we’ve been like working on that,” Hubert said. “I feel like that’s one of our goals: coming together as a team this year, starting to be more successful and starting to learn how to play together better.”

While putting a focus on getting the team to work and function together, Waldron’s goal for the season is to ensure that all the players get a chance to complete and enjoy the season without any complications from external factors like COVID-19.

“My goal right now is just to complete the season with everyone being able to play every game. We don’t want players to sit out because of COVID. We don’t want to lose any playing time. We want things to be back to normal as fast as we can make them back to normal,” Waldron said. “We all have protocols we have to follow, and we’re all willing to do that; there’s a lot of sacrifices involved. Just the fact that we’re out on the field now and we’re playing and getting to see laughter and smiles from the players is enough.”