The Goal of Making Goals

With the Fair Grove High School Girls Soccer season coming up in spring, the preseason is kicking off with Krista Miller returning as coach. 

Coach Miller described the approaching season ahead, “I’m looking forward to seeing the progress we are going to make as a team. I can already tell we have a group of committed and motivated girls who are going to be hungry for a win.” This season, there will be four seniors, Rayann Hupman, Austyn Lair, Bea Peters, and Isabella Hammons. 

As a coach, Miller expressed her goals this season, “We lost several seniors last year, so we are going to be a new and fairly young team. We are just going to have to learn to work together as a team, play to our strengths and improve our weaknesses. We are currently making sure we are going to be in shape come season, then we’ll make sure we have sound fundamentals, constantly improving, maintaining mental fortitude, focus, and communication.” 

Hailey Merillat (11), a returning player, described her personal goals rolling into preseason. “This season, I really want to work on getting more shots on goal and persevering even when things aren’t going as we all hoped. It’s so important to keep your head up, even when it seems nothing is going as planned, and I strongly think this is what I need the most work on,” she said.

With a new season approaching, Bea Peters (12) outlined her most anticipated things about the upcoming season, “My favorite thing I’m looking forward to this season is playing and improving each game. From the first game of the season to the end, everyone can see that we learned at each game by the improvement shown.” 

Merillat continued with what she is looking forward to as well, “For the upcoming season in the spring, I am really looking forward to all of the new relationships and bonds that will be made between each player. There are several new girls who are joining the team this year and I can’t wait to spend the season growing with them.”  

Merillat also expressed the structure and leadership of the team, “I am so excited for the new opportunities we are being given this season. Sure, we lost seniors last year, but there are so many new girls playing who will do their part in making the team stronger this year. We also are privileged to be coached by not one, but two amazing soccer coaches: Krista Miller and Bob Florez!” 

The spring soccer season is still quite some time away, but that does not mean that the Fair Grove Soccer Girls aren’t putting the work in preseason to improve each day given.