The De Soto girls’ soccer team kicked off the spring sports season with a 10-0 shutout win against the Turner Bears on Monday, March 22. 

The Wildcats scored nine goals in the first half, including top scoring seniors Madison Page and Jordan Zade, scoring three goals each. 

Starting the season strong, senior goalkeeper Hallie Scott hopes this first game is only the beginning of a season full of success.

“I hope we can continue to advance from last night’s game, and when we play more difficult teams, we can use what we learned through that game in all of them as we grow as a team,” Scott said. 

With the cancellation of all spring sports within the 2019-20 school year due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this season is extremely special.

“We all know that this year has been rough, and last year was horrible not having the season and so I think we all understand each other and appreciate this opportunity to play even more,” Scott said. 

This season is also essential for growth as there are many new members to the program. 

“The underclassmen have a big impact because we basically have two freshman classes this year, so we have had to really rebuild our team,” senior defender Macie Albright said. 

Agreeing with Albright’s comment, Scott mentions how they are collectively coming together to build relationships amongst each other. 

“They [underclassmen] are a huge part of our team now. We have very few upperclassmen on the varsity team at the moment, so with their new minds and everything we have really been doing more team building activities to continue to come together as a team,” Scott said. “We all worked together at our annual bootcamp where we were able to bond over a variety of activities and workouts.”

Albright explains how training is so much more enjoyable when you are surrounded by support of teammates.

“I think we are a really big family. We love the time that we spend together and we always have fun at practice and in games. We are all here to just have fun and bring in wins,” Albright said.

As the season only begins, the girls soccer team plans to achieve many accomplishments within the 2021 spring season.

“Of course we always want to make it to State and beat Mill Valley, as well as just play our best every chance we get,” Albright said.

The girls soccer team will compete next on Thursday, March 25 at home against Basehor-Linwood High School.