Story by Ryan Miller and Mckenna Pruit.
Photo by Isaac Mullins.
Junior Pierce Derrington stares breathlessly at the perfectly-placed cross coming from the left side, as she prepares to gently tap it in for her first goal of the night, coming within the first five minutes of the game against North Harrison.
“I was really excited, especially because I hadn’t scored any goals yet this season. Normally I’m not one of the top scorers, so it was nice to go ahead and get a few goals under my belt. I have been scoring ever since then,” said Derrington.
Derrington went on to score a hat trick that night, meaning she scored three goals in one game. This is a perfect representation of the Highlanders’ season so far, as they have been practically dancing around their opponents, with a 6-1-1 record at press time. The team has been led by the wide variety of people on the varsity team, with seniors, juniors, sophomores, and even a freshman who have all been contributing to this team’s run.
One senior who is stepping up is Kyleigh Carbeno, who’s scored two goals this season, with one assist.
“I definitely feel like there’s a little bit more responsibility, especially because I am now a senior. And there’s a lot of things that come with that. So being able to control my mouth and my body actions on the field, especially when games are getting intense and just being uplifting during practices and making sure that I am just being helpful,” said Carbeno.
A varsity athlete’s responsibilities go beyond just the field. She also needs to be a leader among teammates. Derrington provides an inside look at the less on-field oriented responsibilities.
“I think as a varsity player, and especially as a player who is starting, I kind of became one of the girls that the underclassmen looked up to. When they have a question about practice, or how they played, I am the person they came to a lot. It just kind of happened that they started coming to me and I feel like I was their upperclassman,” said Derrington.
Kylie Koch, a senior co-captain of the team, knows the responsibility she has, with being both a senior and co-captain. She’s been making the effort to step up and help out.
“I’ve helped younger sophomores and freshmen that made varsity because they aren’t as secure in their playing, so I’ve helped them gain confidence,” said Koch.
Her sister, Makayla Koch, the other co-captain, is also taking strides to be a team leader. She is doing all she can to be a good role model for younger teammates.
“This year I made captain, so that has been a huge responsibility with making sure the girls are doing what they are supposed to be doing and keeping everyone on track,” said Koch.
There are many ways that the players work to improve their skills. On top of practicing daily with the team, many players take the liberty of putting in work outside of school.
“I try to stretch everyday… I will sometimes go and watch different soccer matches to
see if I can learn anything from the professionals, and most of the time I can,” said Carbeno.
The team also uses the bonds they have made to improve outside of school. They will often practice with teammates on off days.
“I like to get the ball on my feet and do a little bit of dribbling and work on my foot skills. Sometimes, I’ll get a friend and we will just go down to the soccer field and pass around,” said Derrington.
Much of the team has played together for a while, whether it’s on the FC team or on a club team together, so naturally, they’d have some special memories together.
“I will never forget sectionals my freshman year. We had to drive up to Jennings County and we had gotten the bye for the tournament, so we didn’t have to play one of the games. We really only had two chances to prove that we could win sectionals and we ended up playing a really good game. The score was really varied and we beat them by a whole lot. We played really well, and our coach was really proud of us,” said Derrington.
Koch also had a treasured memory from the team. “Freshman year, whenever we were going into sectionals, we were the underdog because we had lost to 2 of the three teams we were going to play pretty badly. We ended up beating them, so that was really fun,” said Koch.
The girls’ soccer team plays Jeff today with the kickoff at 7, as it is also senior night.
The Bagpiper 