Imagine this. Your team is anxious and is getting ready to play against Wheatley. Suddenly, almost thirty players from the Wheatley Girls Varsity soccer team storm onto the field determined to win, and the sight of them is just nerve wracking. Wouldn’t you be intimidated? On November 7th, this big team with big dreams came onto field with confidence and left celebrating their 5th straight Nassau County Class B champion title. The defending Long Island Girls Varsity Soccer Champions won against Carle Place at Cold Spring Harbor High School with a score of 3-2. This year the team was coached by Michelle Santoro, taking over the position from Paul Paino, who retired after thirty-seven years of coaching The Wildcats. The team was led by co-captains Senior Rachel Bergsohn , Senior Nikki Hetzel, and Junior Tiffany Bernot. The other Seniors on the team were Doey Dunne, Meaghan Doherty, and Erin Patterson. There were 6 Juniors: Tiffany Bernot, Julia Braito, CeCe Jozeph, Ciara O’Brien, Grace McPhillips and Sami Rothstein, 12 Sophomores: Katie Gold, Isa Rios, Rebecca Sparacio, Amanda Ustick, Julia Perrone, Natalia Potrapeluk, Jackie Dunne, Eileen Huerta, Norah Gidanian, Izzy Avila, Tyler Schore, Kaitlyn Schriefer, 7 Freshman: Jade Sullivan, Sophia Moezinia, Brianna Werny, Kylie Ramalhete, Camila Reyna, Avani Rambharose, Frances Kalpakis and the team’s manager, Katherine Bosnack. Midway into the season the girls faced many unexpected setbacks, including an injured goalie and some players not being able to play. These obstacles created a need to combine the Junior Varsity and Varsity girls soccer teams. The girls Varsity soccer team not only got bigger, but stronger as well. On and off the field, the girls dreamt big about their goals for the season. The combination of the teams eventually resulted in new friendships and a strong unified team. But there was still one big problem, who would step up and be the goalie? In the end, even though at first she wanted nothing to do with a position that involved flying balls coming at her, Cece Jozef stepped up to the position and stunned everyone with multiple impressive saves Friday night at Cold Spring Harbor High School. In the end, the girls were heartbroken by not being able to qualify for States. They lost the Long Island Class B Girls soccer championships against Babylon, which went into penalty kicks, leading to a defeat with a score of 3-1. It was an extremely close match which showed how amazing the team really is. But this gave the team an opportunity to come together and appreciate how far they had come. If the sudden setbacks during the season led to a strong team winning the Nassau County Class B championship, this setback will only inspire the team next year to work even harder!
