Comments (...)At this point in the soccer season, it looks like it's 'ready or not' time for the Redskins.
While the ground and their home field is currently still packed with snow, the Redskins' home opener with Hall on Tuesday is still on - though it may be moved to the JV field behind the District 101 Fieldhouse in order to prevent tearing up the football field so early in the spring.
The rough start to the start of the "spring" season has meant problems for each team in the area and the Morris soccer team is no different.
"Limited gym space is a huge problem. I thought that we'd be outside by now. In the last four years when I've coached softball we've had maybe two days inside," Morris coach Kristen Porter said. "It's not good for us. But we're making it work. We're coming in in the morning and playing five on five and things like that soccer related. We can't do a bunch after school right now, but we are going three days a week right now."
Still, there is some good news.
"The good thing is that 65-70 percent of the girls on the team have been playing soccer all winter," Porter said. "They play indoor and most of them play for (assistant) coach (Steve) Rain."
"We've grown up together and most of us have played together since the age of five," senior leader Steph Wiekert said. "We play indoor all year round. We've been playing since July."
That's been taking place mostly at the bubble in Aurora. A place where Wiekert, a keeper, has honed her trade.
"I take soccer very seriously," she said. "It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to keep the team focused and into it."
Since the onset of the new high school season, the team has been slowly getting to know each other better and to learn what the expectation are for this group of Redskins.
"At the beginning of the season, we weren't sure exactly how things were going to be with the new coaching staff," Wiekert said. "But we've adjusted and we really like coach Porter."
Porter says that the adjustments everyone has undergone so far this season have gone better than expected.
"I think what's going on with these girls is this. I don't know them, and part of that is because I am a special education teacher. I know a few of them. Some of them have told me that they are trying to impress the coaching staff and that's because we don't know them," Porter said. "We don't know who did what last year and who had a great game against who.
"It's like everybody has a blank slate and everyone has to earn everything. Which is why, I think, everything has gone so great. There's no drama. I told the team at the beginning that I'm going to pick three captains and that they are just going to naturally form. It's not a popularity contest. I'm going to know because the captains are going to separate themselves and that's who we are going to know they are. They have a lot to prove and I think that's why things have gone so well right now."
An ongoing adjustment that starts with the first kickoff of the season on Tuesday at 4:30 against the Red Devils.
"The team is really excited and looking forward to Tuesday," Wiekert said. "We've been working hard as a team to get to know each other better. Playing more together with the girls that haven't been playing with us. It takes a lot of adjusting and getting used to, but we're all really excited."
