It’s 5:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, and I am shocked to find Josie Lee ’16 crying in the back corner of the girls’ locker room.. She is too distraught to tell me what’s wrong, but I already know what this is about: senior soccer.
No other sport on campus pushes athletes like senior soccer, which requires a certain type of person with extreme physical and emotional strength to even try to join this team. If you thought your varsity sport was demanding, try being on a team that practices for hours on end every day and seldom has a water break or a rest throughout practice. These seniors have been training for years to be on this team, and the slots this year were harder than ever to fill. Taking the smallest team they’ve had in years, senior soccer has a meager group of 40 students, each with a burning passion for the game and a competitive glimmer in their eyes. Sitting down with extreme athletes Ben Wishnie-Edwards ’16 and Josie Lee ’16, I gained insight into what senior soccer really entails.
“It’s hard for me to even talk about practice sometimes,” murmured Wishnie-Edwards ’16. “You might think that senior soccer is just a joke, that it’s all fun and games,” he sniffled and waited a moment to compose himself. “But it’s not like that at all.” Wishnie-Edwards then told me how the team dynamic is anything but friendly and laid-back. “We know the coaches are looking for their starting players, so it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.”
To see if Wishnie-Edwards was embellishing, I stopped by practice to see senior soccer in action. Finding the field wasn’t hard, and once I got there, my eyes widened with fear, wondering if it was even safe for me to be there. Players were sprinting, screaming, yelling—some even attempting to the throw the benches at each other. It was hard to see exactly who punched whom first, but O’Neil Brown ’16 and Patrick O’Leary ’16 seemed to be fighting over who would get to start as forward.
On the other side of the field, Alexa Paladino ’16 and Cecilia Katzenstein ’16 were grabbing Anna Diffley ’16 by the wrists and ankles to roll her down the hill after what they deemed to be “the worst pass they’ve ever seen in their lives.” On the sidelines, Matt Kaye ’16 was asking Coach Cobb if he could DJ during practice instead of doing hill sprints, to which Cobb replied with a laugh and had Kaye run wind-sprints for questioning authority. Lee was standing in the corner of the field, plotting her next plan of attack with Cecilia Atkins ’16 while they watch the commotion unravel. Coach Warren blows his whistle to signal that warm-ups are over, and as the players gather around in a circle.
Normally, in this part of the article, I would begin to explain the conversation between the coaches and the players as they discuss the agenda for practice. However, the sheer amount of expletives used in this five-minute powwow encouraged me not to take direct quotes from both the players and the coaches. Rather, I will just say that, once practice starts, senior soccer means business.
When I asked Wishnie-Edwards how they conduct a practice, he commented, “Yeah, we just get out there and rip some shots.” No stretching, no butt-kicks, they just go out there and “rip some shots.” The team dynamic seems to settle a little as the drills start, and taking a moment with Lee on the sidelines, I ask, “What’s your favorite part about senior soccer?” Lee gives me a disdainful look and asks Miss Shea to immediately escort me off of the premises. Along with Anna Diffley, I am rolled down the hill by my wrists and ankles and removed from the scene, with only a wild memory of this maniac team.
My experience of senior soccer this past week has been anything but expectable. I’ve seen blood, tears, and a surprisingly strong Alexa Paladino take out Ben Wishnie-Edwards with one swing, but that’s not the point. The point is, this is a seriously underestimated team on campus! They have ambition, definitely “friendly” competition, and a sense of team and togetherness, which, if you asked me, is what will and does make a great fall season for these wild Wild Boars.
