The varsity girls’ soccer team left on Friday, February 13, for a tournament in Orange Beach. They played two teams while they were there and returned on Sunday, the 22nd. It was a bonding experience because it allowed the team to get closer and know each other better, which helps them feel more like a team during games.

“We played against two teams, but we were supposed to play against three. One of our games got canceled because a girl had to go to the hospital in an ambulance because she got a concussion,” said sophomore Mia Grioni.

Several of the players were upset that they couldn’t play the third game because they wanted to practice.

“I expected there to be a challenge when playing because we were playing a lot of bigger, public high school teams, and I expected it to just be a hard game, which it was,” said sophomore Mia Grioni. “We lost both of our games, but these teams are really big, strong players that have also been in the season a lot longer than we have.”

Along with Grioni, her teammates had a great time together and learned a lot from playing in the tournament.

“The games went terribly wrong because we were not prepared as we normally were, and we were trying to get used to our new team. It was definitely one of the tournaments where you don’t come here to win, you come here to learn and improve. I think next year we will one hundred percent be better,” said sophomore Emma Barron.

Along with soccer and team bonding, they also went and did other activities to bond better and get to know each other.

“Along with soccer, we went to Starbucks, CVS, the beach, shopping, the pool and The Wharf, which is a restaurant in Orange Beach,”said freshman Georgia Kate Barksdale. “We just hung out, next year I think it will go a lot better.”

They did a ton of other activities besides soccer to bond with the team and to improve in communication for the real season games.

“I feel like we did pretty well considering the people that we played were better and had more practice and training in their season already, and we have not. They were a 1A school, and we are a 6A school, so that definitely shows they are better qualified, but that means that we got a lot of practice playing them at the tournament,” said Barksdale.

The team thinks next year they will come back and win, since this has been a learning experience and the team is young.

“They had really good people, and I feel like we got tired there towards the end, but we didn’t give up. Even though we lost, I feel like we still played really well,” Barron said.