The BSM girls soccer team has had a great start to their season and look to continue this into the rest of the season.  With talented captains and coaches, as well as a strong bond as a team, they look poised to capture their third state championship in four years.

This year, the team’s roster has changed a good amount because the team lost eight seniors but gained eight new players.  The captains think that with the addition of new players, the team is growing stronger.  “We gained some strong new players who work very hard and it makes me excited to see how well we can all play together,” Roux said.

In order to train and prepare for the season, they do a lot of different drills and types of workouts.  “Every year we have captain’s practices before tryouts. For these we usually do some conditioning, ball work, and playing. Before every training session and game we do the same in sync warm-up. We aren’t superstitious, but a little stitious,” Roux said.

The coaches play a big role in the game and help the players on and off the field.  “Our head coach is Scott Helling-Christy and our assistant and goalie coach is Coach Anne Erickson (aka Coach E).  They both help us with advice and coaching the whole year,” Roux said.

The captains play a vital role in helping their new teammates.  “We help lead the team but are not the only ones. The leaders of the team are our coaches and usually upperclassmen.  We expect everyone to help lead them team and reach our goals,” Roux said.

On the team every play is equally important and there is no one key component.  “We work as a team, so in order to win we need to work together and be able to rely on everyone to work hard and do their best,” Roux said.

In order to achieve their main goal, which is to be state champions, they do more than just train.  “We have decided to reach this by not only winning, but creating good team chemistry and dynamic.  So far, it has been going well but it is something that we work on throughout the whole year,” Roux said.

Team bonding is very important to the girls in order to grow stronger, which involves a strong sense of togetherness and communication.  “We go up to St. Cloud for scrimmages and team bonding (team Olympics) before our first game. We also go up to Duluth and have random team bonding throughout the season,” Roux said.

While soccer is a huge part of their training, they also prepare for postseason competition in other ways besides just soccer.  “[We do] lots of yoga, cat n mouse, and visualizing,” Roux said.

Another captain, senior Aleksa Tataryn, sees it in a similar way, “I think the season has been pretty good, we beat Orono which was our biggest game! [We] have been having trouble scoring but overall we have been pretty successful,” Tataryn said.

The team strives to always have great chemistry, which is such a vital key to winning.  “[We have] pretty good chemistry so far.  [We] are still figuring out how to be successful in scoring more goals and just having more variety,” Tataryn said.

The team bond between the players is strong because of their recent trip to St. Cloud. They  went to St. Cloud right after they found out who was on varsity, which helped them to all get to know each other much better.  “Since then, our chemistry has been pretty good. In a couple of weeks we will be heading out to Duluth which will make us even closer!  We are just going to do the same thing we do the whole season and just play like we normally do!” Tataryn said.