In soccer, as in most team sports, leadership is everything.
While the Camp Verde girls soccer team has only three seniors this year — Maddy Showers, Tally Wallner and Ady Ruiz — head coach Pat Allen said he will be depending on each of them, along with a pair of experienced underclassmen, Melissa Zeid and Paige Church, to set a solid example for their less-experienced teammates.
“We’re really looking for leadership out of our returning players, Maddy and Tally and Ady are our seniors and Melissa and Paige are our underclassmen, to help lead the other girls,” Allen said.
“They’re returning and bring a lot of experience with them, and the kind of leadership that we’ve been looking for, so we’re hoping for a lot out of them.”
Ruiz and Showers have grown up playing soccer together since middle school.
They both started playing the sport just for something to do, but eventually fell in love with it.
As the team captains last season, they concentrated on encouraging and setting a positive example to try to motivate their younger teammates.
The team currently has 19 girls competing for spots, and they are spread almost evenly across the four classes with three seniors, five juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Sept. 4, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
