Oct. 28—FAIRMONT — A season four years in the making, East Fairmont girls soccer had a year to remember in 2023.
Winning 16 games, including a streak of 10 straight, and the sectional title against cross-town rival Fairmont Senior, the Bees came a game short of reaching the state tournament.
In the regional game versus Weir at Oak Glen High, East Fairmont lost 4-3 in penalty kicks.
“We came out a little slow,” Head Coach Eric Wright said. “We didn’t play the greatest first half. At halftime, all we looked at doing was cleaning a few things up, playing a little more focused, a little more disciplined. And then in the final third, we wanted to slow it down and try and find our feet a little better and find better shots.”
Weir played direct, as senior defender Carlie Ice put it, attempting to move the ball up the field any way possible. The Red Raiders scored early in the first half before East Fairmont tied it in the second. Double-overtime came and went, and the game went to penalty kicks. Weir finished ahead to win 4-3 and advance to the state tournament.
Even though the game goes down as a tie and the Bees lost, the players see their performance as an example of their resilience and determination to stay competitive in every game.
“We showed ourselves that we can fight back,” senior midfielder Kierstyn Maxey said. “We were down 1-0 the whole entire first half and some of the second half, and we persevered through it. We kept fighting because we knew this is all or nothing. So we showed ourselves a lot in that game and finished much stronger than we started.”
Pushing through adversity was a common theme of the season, according to Ice. She said the team knew it would be a challenging season with a tough schedule facing teams like Charleston Catholic and Fairmont Senior, learning not to beat themselves down after a loss.
As the season went on, the team’s chemistry came together both on and off the field. Maxey mentioned how the players spent time together outside of the sport, and Ice said she never felt like her teammates disliked each other.
“Our chemistry was just outstanding this year,” Ice said. “Obviously you’re gonna have a few bickers here and there with every team, but not this team. There was never a time where I was like ‘man, she really doesn’t like me.’ It was always she loves me with everything she’s got, and I think that really helped us not only on the field but just as people coming together.”
According to Wright, the goal all along was to make the state tournament. In a lot of ways, it was the expectation to make the state tournament.
“We may have fallen a little short in our expectations, but that was the challenge,” Wright said. “I’m more of a realistic kind of person, and everything’s a process. But we came in this year, and we had one expectation, and that was going to the state tournament. We put everything we had into it.
“Like I told these girls, this program is going to make the state tournament, whether it’s next year or the year after. We’re going to get there, and any success that we have is going to be built on the foundation that the seniors laid.”
This year’s senior class, consisting of Ice, Maxey and midfielders Sophia Schnore and Ally Comas, leaves East Fairmont the winningest class in Bees soccer history, according to Wright. They led by example and worked with the younger players to prepare them for the years to follow and how to be leaders themselves.
“You just have to be a leader, the best one you can be,” Ice said. “Showing them what it’s like to be the leader, the person that everyone looks up to, it gives them good momentum going forward because they know ‘OK, this is the standard, this is what I need to be when it comes for my turn.'”
Having played four years for East Fairmont, the accomplishments mean a lot to the graduating seniors. And according to Maxey, it means a lot just to be on the team from freshman year on.
“It’s been a joy honestly,” Maxey said. “Me coming in as a scared freshman, I was like ‘oh gosh, I don’t know how high school soccer is gonna go.’ But just coming in, starting as a freshman, bonding with the older girls and then me being the older girl on East Fairmont High School, it means a lot.”
For Wright, it means a lot to be their coach all four years and seeing them grow not just as soccer players but as people too.
“Take away the soccer, the young ladies that they have become, seeing them come in as 14-year-old freshmen and what they have really come to be, as a coach, it brings you a lot of joy, really,” Wright said. “This isn’t just about coaching soccer. Most coaches at this level are in it for love of the sport but also love for the kids, and these girls know what they mean to me, and that’s what it’s about for me.
“It is more about the relationships with the players and the staff that we have because when you invest in the kids, then the kids invest back into the program. I tell them all the time, this is their team. I’m just the lucky guy that gets to coach them.”
Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/east-fairmont-girls-soccer-ends-134600886.html
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