By CECILIA TIMME
Sheridan High School Student
This column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School dual-credit program students and Human Services teacher Abby Williams.
Since the beginning of July, which was the start of soccer season, we have been working toward a goal. Everyone had their own separate goals for the season, but in the end we wanted the trophy and season to keep going.
For me, after being out an entire year from my ACL surgery, everyone had their own goals for me. Everyone was telling me that I just needed to focus on getting where I feel strong and comfortable.
While I did have these goals for myself too, I had one goal that I had been thinking about for a year: beating Tipton.
Tipton had been the team that had knocked us out of sectionals and ended our season for years. After sitting out last year and having to watch my team lose 1-0 in a close game, the “what-ifs” started to go in my head, and I was ready to win. When I was rehabbing and getting ready for the season, I was thinking about the feeling of beating Tipton and holding a trophy up. Every time I would think about this, I never saw us losing – it was always us winning, and I think this added an extra spark to me when I began training for the season.
As our season started, we had to figure out how we were going to win games: we had the skill, talent, attitudes, and everything we needed to win games. We just had to put it all together. A couple games into the season we did this and we never looked back. We pushed each other and worked hard to win, always thinking in the back of our heads about the sectional game at the end of the season.
As the season started going, we started playing really well and I was feeling back to myself on the field. The start of the season was rough for me because I was on a time limit and not where I wanted to be. Later into the season, I was where I wanted to be and was starting to think more about Tipton. I was thinking about what it would feel like to hold up a sectional trophy after it being taken year after year.
Toward the end of our season, we were feeling really good and confident. Our last game of the regular season was Tipton, and then we turned around and played them in sectionals. We wanted to win this first game as much as the sectional game. Tipton was more of a mental game for us because we knew what beating Tipton was: it was a sectional championship.
The first game was very physical and we ended up scoring toward the end of the game to win. The next week we played on Tuesday for the first round of sectionals against Taylor. The first time we played them we played on turf and won by 16, which was a new school record. The sectional game we played at home on grass, which made the game speed different. We ended up only winning 6-0, but we advanced to the next round where we played Tipton.
We were ready for this game against Tipton because we had been preparing for it from the beginning of the season and knew it meant a sectional championship. We played the late game that night and there was a large crowd. We scored within the first few minutes of the game and kept the energy the rest of the game. It was a physical game again and their crowd and players were starting to get frustrated. We kept our energy the entire game though and ended up winning 1-0. This was the best feeling for us as a team because we accomplished something we had not done before.
That Saturday we played for a sectional championship against Eastern, whom we beat the first time 4-0. Before the game we were all very excited and ready to play. We had never had this opportunity and we were well-prepared for it. It took us a long time to score but once we did, we never looked back.
We won the first sectional in Sheridan girls’ soccer history.
There were a ton of people cheering us on and we saw everything we worked for coming together. We got to feel the feeling we had wanted to feel since July, holding the trophy up.
Sadie (left) and Cecilia Timme (right) happily display their team’s sectional championship trophy. (Photo provided)
We were lucky enough to get to host the regional semifinals at home against Faith Christian the following Thursday. We knew how to beat them and had the confidence to. Going into every game in the postseason I never thought it was going to be our last practice; we all just knew we would be back the next day.
The beginning of the Faith game we were all nervous because we had never been where we were before in front of all of our fans. We were down 2-0 early in the second half and were able to make our way back to tie the game. The game remained tied into overtime and ended up going to penalty kicks. This is where we were able to win and move onto the regional finals. This was super exciting for us and was really big for our team.
We played the regional championship game on Saturday, and we were all nervous and excited. The team we had played had been here before and we had not; they had been to the state championship. This made them doubt us, not take us seriously, and they were already looking past us. We were ready though: we came out with energy and shocked them. We had the ball on their end the entire first half but just could not finish. Going into the second half we were all tied, but they ended up scoring with about 20 minutes left in the game on a corner kick. We ended up losing by one and our season ended.
I was madder that we lost than upset because I knew we could have won. Now looking back at our season, I am so happy and proud of our year. We had a historic season for Sheridan soccer and won more games than any other team, won a conference championship, sectional championship, and made it to the regional championship.