Girl's Soccer
This year’s Junior Varsity Girls Soccer team. Photograph by Jose Jimenez.
Girl’s Soccer team: Where’s the Hype?
By: Itzel Jimenez
The sport we know today as modern soccer began in England in 1863. The first women's soccer team didn't come along until over 30 years later in 1895. Although female athletes have had equal access to the sport for hundreds of years, women’s soccer teams still typically have a smaller audience than men’s soccer teams do. According to Reuters.com, “The 2022 Men's World Cup final achieved a global reach of almost 1.5 billion viewers, while women's soccer only had 37.6 million viewers.” Unfortunately, this trend applies to Greenfield High’s girls' soccer team as well despite a history of championships. Luckily, students and staff shared their suggestions for increasing a larger audience for this current winter sport.
Coach Ayala Champions Our Athletes
Mr. Ayala is a well-known figure in campus security at our high school, but what a lot of people might not know is that he has been the girls' soccer coach at G.H.S. for 11 years. When asked if there was a change in the size of audience of sports fans showing up for the girls' soccer games, Ayala states, “it goes up and down. But there was one time where they had a huge audience for a playoff game.” He also proclaims that some of our soccer team’s most exciting matches are with our “biggest rivalries [against] with King City, Gonzales, and Soledad.” Ayala adds that games with these teams “are incredibly competitive so if you want to watch a good game it’ll be against one of these teams.” Players inviting their parents or family members to games is just one of the solutions that Ayala disclosed to The Bruins’ Eye. He also wants students and staff to know that, “the season starts in the beginning of November and ends in the middle of February, the games are on Arbiter live, so anyone interested is welcome to go and support the team!”
Our Girls on the Field
G.H.S. senior Alondra Lopez-Alvarez has been playing on the girls' high school team for a year and believes the audience for the sport has been the same since she first came to school. “JV [the Junior Varsity Team) barely has any audience and the varsity has more.” When The Bruin’s Eye asked Lopez-Alvarez how she would compare the boy's audience to the girls, she divulged that our male athletes “they have a [larger] audience, even if it's [only a] JV [match].” Alondra adds her own personal invite to all Greenfield students, staff, and community members, “Come to our games, please!”
Laysha Garcia, also a senior at G.H.S., has been playing soccer for 2 years and agrees that the boys have a greater audience than the girls' team. She also believes that when a certain audience is formed at the games, it is mostly to make fun of them. Garcia claims that at a game last season, “The girls on the opposite team were way taller than us but even though we were losing, we didn’t stop pushing. Just because the opposite team was taller, it didn’t stop from motivating us.” Something Laysha wants our readers to know is that “joining the team is a really good experience. You gain friendships rather than just teammates.” Solutions that both seniors we interviewed suggested were more advertisements for upcoming games and verbal invitations to attend.
Student athlete Naomi Camacho, #17, charges the field against the Soledad Aztecs.
Photograph by Itzel Jimenez.
Only a few years ago, in 2016 our Lady Bruins brought home a banner as the league champions of 2016-2017. There are seven or eight teams in a division, and you play each team twice, one at home and one away. These games are the most competitive because it is the best of the best playing against each other. The winner of that division is called the Division Champion. Then that team goes to playoffs where the teams play an elimination style 16 team playoffs and the sites are set in neutral locations.
Last year our varsity girls' soccer made it to third place, making it likely that they will bring home the championship banner this year. The adrenaline of hoping your team scores a goal or the fear of them making a simple mistake in the game makes this sport one worth watching.
There are times during any match when the defensive line is way more advanced than your own and the teams push each other to the limits of their energy. Players have nothing left, but our girls soccer players back up again and show the other team who's boss. This the best feeling any athlete can get as a player on the field. And it gets even better when the stands are full of cheering crowds. So readers, come to support the GHS girls soccer team this season! All games can be found on the website Arbiter live. Any game our Lady Bruins play is worth your time.