Beautiful Game
Source/Author: Mike Murphy, Headmaster
February 28, 2020
Three cheers to Head Coaches Wolfrath and Montoya, their coaching staff and very talented players for advancing to the Soccer State Championship games. Not often do both the boys and girls teams from the same school, in the same sport do what our Chargers have accomplished. By now most community members know the girls ran into a juggernaut. The loss to St. John’s, although painful, does not ruin the best girls soccer season since 2006. Fortunately, the boys had an incredible game and upset undefeated and nationally ranked Maclay 4-0 to become State Champions! Cheers!
The 2019-20 soccer season started in October. The season was broken up by Winter Break, followed by the quarter-final and semi-final games during Spring Break. The dedication and commitment shown by players, coaches and family members has been impressive. Believe it or not, a school on the east coast of Florida forfeited their quarter-final game because so many players left for spring break the school could not field a team. We had a number of families change plans in order for their sons and daughters to stick with the team. Hopefully, all of our student athletes are developing the same commitment to their teams and sports as modeled by our championship bound soccer players.
During the season our teams and their fans witnessed some pretty ugly scenes on and off the field. Soccer is a fast and at times a very physical sport. Collisions and injuries are not uncommon. Thankfully, they are not as common as the wails of complaints from spectators about the play of opposing players and the judgements about the referees. There are some ugly elements to “the beautiful game.”
Thankfully, our community and especially the coaches, players and families who have supported our teams all season long will remember the great plays, victories, camaraderie and end of games smiles and hugs. Those moments have made the game and the season beautiful and memorable.
Cheers!
Mike
