Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast

Leaders and Champions

December 18, 2023 • Chesapeake Public Schools • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Ever wondered what student leadership really entails and how it impacts the community? 

Experience firsthand the intricate workings of student councils, and the positive impact of these young leaders through our insightful conversation with Hudson King and Spencer Cocuzzo, SCA presidents from Grassfield High School and Hickory High School. We delve into their roles and their knack for keeping students engaged with exciting school events, including the Teen Summit.

We then shift gears to the world of middle school sports, introducing three new opportunities, girls' soccer, boys' soccer, and baseball. Whitney Roberson and Abigail Swisher from the Joliff Middle School Jaguars Girls Soccer championship team, share their experiences, including the importance of team spirit, and being a part of the inaugural middle school soccer season.

You also get an opportunity to listen to the talented Deep Creek High School Orchestra Quartet provide some holiday music.

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Matt:

Welcome to Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.

Richie:

Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of South Eastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.

Matt:

Hey everyone, this is Matt Graham here with Richie Babb, and this is the fifth episode of Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. And at the beginning we want to give a shout out to the Deep Creek High School Orchestra Quartet. They did a wonderful job recently at the school board meeting and it definitely sets the sounds of the season, doesn't it, richie?

Richie:

Yeah, it sets our mood. I mean, here we are approaching the holidays for this podcast, or you may be listening to this right after the holidays, but if that's the case, you missed it, so try to keep up with you.

Matt:

But yeah it was.

Richie:

It's nice.

Matt:

It's a very nice way to set the tone for our show Right, and last episode we talked about Thanksgiving and doing something kind of cool. What do you do for the holidays there?

Richie:

So my wife's family on the eve of Christmas Eve every year have a progressive dinner and it usually has a theme Like if you do Brazil, then you do some of the Brazilian customs and people keep Brazilian food and etc. Etc. So that's a lot of fun and it's not being the eve of Christmas Eve, it doesn't really get involved in all of your plans and you receive. You got kids and that sort of stuff. That's cool, yeah, so that's fun.

Matt:

How about you Anything? Oh man, we got a lot planned. I mean, we have two young children, so we definitely spread out between the families trying to do this, trying to do that, we went to the Winterfest out at Nauticus. That was pretty sweet, yeah. But one cool thing that I love that our family does and actually I give props to my wife. She's an excellent cook baker, and one of the nice things that we do is every year we do some sort of holiday cookie. Bring the kids together, they design it. It gets messy.

Richie:

Yeah, I mean, but it's a lot of fun. That's half the fun of it. Yeah, yeah.

Matt:

So it's something cool that's what we do as a family, nice, but there's definitely a lot of things that go on too within the schools.

Richie:

Oh yeah, this is a busy time of year for student government, for SCAs. They're working on just a lot of altruistic activities. So we're going to talk to two.

Matt:

SCA presidents. Right, we ended up speaking with two SCA presidents One from Grassfield, one from Hickory and they shared a bunch of things that they do not just during this season but throughout the school year. That was a great conversation. And then also something we wanted to highlight was the first year of three new middle school sports Girl soccer, boys soccer and baseball. We spoke with the championship winning coach and one of their players from the girls soccer team over at Jolliff Middle School. First up is our conversation with Hudson King and Spencer Cacuzzo. Alright, everyone welcome. This is Matt Graham and I'm here with Richie Babb and we have with us two SCA presidents on amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.

Richie:

That's correct, we have Spencer Cacuzzo, who is from Grassfield High School, and Hunter King, who's from Hickory High School. As we always do, we'd like to take a minute to get to know both of you. So both of you been in Chesapeake Public Schools your entire school career. Have you lived other places?

Spencer:

Since second grade. Very, very young yeah.

Hudson:

Okay, I originally lived here, but then I moved to Italy and then I moved back. So I've had this whole like moving thing. But, when in America, I've been in Chesapeake Public Schools.

Richie:

Alright, nice, and so that's Hudson King. That was just talking. So, as we identify people, then our first person to respond was Spencer.

Matt:

Cocuzzo.

Richie:

Because, so it's up to you now to keep it straight. I've told you who is who, so I'm not going to do it again. Alright, okay, so have you guys always been involved in student government I mean as early as you possibly could, or is this something new?

Spencer:

Oh yeah For me. I've been involved since literally grade school. I've always been super type A and I've always wanted to be involved in some capacity. So from the time I was putting on my little backpack it was really cool I had dinosaurs on it it was pretty dope Sweet. I have been involved.

Hudson:

Yeah.

Richie:

Right, okay.

Hudson:

It's a newer experience because I only like originally joined in sophomore year, so it was it's very new thing, but I've definitely like built up experience and I've definitely gotten comfy in it. We do Virginia State Advisory Board together. So, it's like a whole new level besides our student council. It's very nice to see all that kind of stuff.

Matt:

Nice Spencer, can you go ahead and just tell us what the whole campaign?

Spencer:

process is like oh for sure. I am of the opinion that the campaign process starts as soon as you get into SCA. You have to have that kind of tunnel vision on what position you want and you have to be putting yourself out there constantly. Like, for example, whenever we had events to promote. I would go and make a fool of myself in the hallway being, like come to our event, come to our event, just so people could associate me with SCA and know that I am dedicated to my craft and what I do.

Hudson:

For Hickory High School. They do campaigning process a little bit differently For our student council, like officers, when they're voted on it's not like the majority of the school were voted just inside the council. And they originally had decided that because the student population doesn't really see the amount of effort that student council members go through, so it's hard for them to choose a leader.

Richie:

Right, it becomes a popularity contest.

Hudson:

Yeah.

Richie:

Right Otherwise.

Spencer:

That is very true.

Spencer:

And one of the things that you have to kind of take note of at least at Grassfield, because we do it based on a student population election is kind of hitting your niche and making sure that you are pulling from the right people and getting your message out there in a way that kind of aligns with what people like. Right During the campaign season the Barbie movie was super big, so I made a Barbie themed poster and campaign and I think that really struck a chord, just because it was culturally relevant at the time yeah.

Spencer:

Yeah, so kind of being with the times with your student body, making sure that they get you.

Richie:

Right. What draws you guys to be involved in SCA? What's the attraction?

Spencer:

Oh, the fame and fortune.

Richie:

Not just kidding. Yeah, clearly you get to be on a podcast, right, I know right, so exciting, I know right.

Spencer:

So, professional yes.

Richie:

Right.

Spencer:

But no, I was gonna say what drew me was being able to be involved in really kind of, I guess, put yourself out there and make it more enjoyable for people, whether that's like random, sporadic PJ days or like watching your teacher dress up in a pickle costume, it's just fun and it makes high school more enjoyable.

Hudson:

It's all about like getting involved. For me it just makes everything better and if I'm bringing in more people with me because I know I've met so many relationships, I've had so many opportunities just from the extracurriculars that I've done Like just being an SCA, it has given me different opportunities in other clubs. So it has definitely maybe like branched out across the whole school.

Richie:

Yeah.

Hudson:

Because once you get involved you kind of see like the opinions of multiple people and you see all these different perspectives and like you basically see, like all sides of your high school and honestly, kind of to touch upon that, our high schools are massive.

Spencer:

in Chesapeake, Like in Grassfield, 2300 students. It gives you so much perspective.

Matt:

What's one of the toughest parts of being the leader of your schools.

Spencer:

Yeah Well, first and foremost, I think time management is a huge thing, and also just making sure that you have to consider all of those people, and they're all going to have different thoughts, opinions, things they want to do, and it's important to consider all those people and make sure you include all of them in some capacity.

Hudson:

I know Spencer touched on like the outside perspective of student council, but when you're like the leader on the inside, I personally have to say one of the hardest parts is just delegating and making sure like everyone's contributing to a part. Yeah, that too, because if you have like all the work be left on just the officers, it gets. It's almost like you're like drowning. So, you really need to like delegate out and make sure like everyone's contributing something, especially so you have a project that's very well rounded.

Matt:

Okay, wow so you have a lot of projects. I mean, y'all do a lot, a lot for your schools, a lot for the community, and then you also do some projects together with other schools. Hudson, can you tell me a little bit about some of the projects that you're working on over there at Hickory?

Hudson:

For right now we're working on a citywide that involves all the high schools that come together, like the SCAs, and I think Dr Cotton's coming on as well for a discussion. But something that we're working forward to in January is the teen summit which is very helpful for the community. It's where all of our SCAs get together and we kind of like give back to the community and like lessons and leadership, If Spencer wants to add that on that one?

Spencer:

Yeah for sure. Also. Impressive segue there. I liked it Anyway. But yes, the teen summit is in January and basically it's an event for middle school and high school students and their parents and it's basically just everything about being a teenager and trying to navigate high school, whether that's leadership, extracurriculars I'm presenting on stress management because as a kid who's taking all AP and is also SCA president. Stress is a big thing and that is just something that really I want to share and just how to manage that stress.

Matt:

And you presented. I was actually there at the teen summit and I was in one of your sessions last year and you did a great job.

Spencer:

Thank you.

Matt:

On the presentations.

Spencer:

There are middle school presentations, and then there are also ones that are geared toward high schoolers.

Matt:

Okay.

Spencer:

Like, for example, peer pressure and resisting, like you know, drugs and alcohol and all that nasty stuff. That is something that would be more geared toward high schoolers and something that's also presented upon.

Hudson:

With Hickory. There's also, instead of just like focusing on the students, there's also parents that can come in and what we're doing is one of our presentations. It's going to go through like the student life and like what their day to day activities towards, like everything they do is and it's going to be presented to, like the high school parents, the middle school parents, so they can see what they're really like getting into.

Richie:

Life is so much more complicated than it was when I was in high school, right? Well, you were an SDA president.

Matt:

I was an.

Richie:

SDA president at Great Bridge actually the first one in that building, yeah, and still called the new high school 40 years later. But, interestingly enough, but it was so much simpler. I mean, I look at what you're offering at the teen summit and it's so varied and there are so many issues that you know we wouldn't even have thought about.

Matt:

Right.

Hudson:

Well, you may have.

Richie:

But back. So let's talk for a few minutes about you, talk about reaching out to your community. Let's talk about some of the projects during the year, and especially maybe around this time of year, that you guys are involved in in your schools.

Hudson:

One big staple in HACRE is our Hawksana, which we go out into the community and we help out three families and basically like our extracurriculars, our clubs and definitely like our families at HACRE, they'll come together and get like presents and gifts and we'll send out like a checklist and they'll like come help fund this Christmas's for the family. And it's always nice. It's always a big turnout we always have. We always have fun like wrapping it up and giving it to them. It's wonderful.

Spencer:

That's awesome, yeah. At Grassfield we just did a PJ drive for little kids in need. And then another thing we also did on December 2nd was our region to workshop, which is basically an event for all the SCAs to come together and bounce ideas off of each other and really learn how to perfect the SCA formula.

Matt:

Both of you have some amazing advisors at your school. You have Alicia White at Grassfield and. Leslie Sarver at Hickory. What's it been like having them as your mentors or advisors?

Hudson:

Oh, it's amazing. Miss Sarver is very well-rounded with her work. She corresponds with, like all the activities, all the clubs, like if you need to know something about Hickory High School, she will have the answer for you in no time. So it's definitely great having that mentorship for me and it's definitely prepared me.

Spencer:

Oh yeah, and the same thing could be said for Miss White. She connects with her students, she is making sure that you are on top of things, while also being very gentle about it.

Richie:

It's great yeah, and anytime you get involved in something like this, it's a learning experience. What are some of the things you guys have learned from your experience in student leadership?

Hudson:

Honestly, one of the hardest things that you have to overcome is seeing someone else's perspective on your school and either having to live up for that or trying to change that image to like what you do inside the council, and it can be hard battling that sometimes, especially when there's such like, a strong like certain type of students. I'm not like, I don't know the vocabulary.

Matt:

But maybe someone that's strongly opinionated. Yeah, strongly opinionated.

Hudson:

And it's hard sometimes to get work done when it's counterproductive. But another thing that's also hard is time management, like managing your time, because these events are all scheduled. Each event also has like a hundred different other factors. That because you're just collaborating and you have to make sure that everyone's informed on all the times, at all times. Yeah.

Spencer:

Yeah, I could honestly say the same thing I was going to say making sure you include all those people super important, but also incredibly difficult. It's really important that you are kind of accounting for and regarding all of those students like, for example, like underrepresented student populations, like students in the arts, students who go to CCC and don't attend school, traditionally, virtual students.

Richie:

Right.

Spencer:

There are so many people that you have to account for and that can be very difficult, but it's something that you have to do as an SEA to create that kind of collective culture.

Richie:

Right, and almost any organization. It seems like there's 20 people in whatever, let's say 20 people in the organization and three people do all the work.

Hudson:

Yeah, yeah, that's tough to overcome too right?

Richie:

Oh yeah, it's just a hard balance.

Hudson:

You have to. I go in every day and you just have to be like okay, here's my list, what can I get done today? What can I spread out my work? And it's just that constant battle I would say when you're a leader.

Spencer:

Yeah, and speaking of leadership in general, I feel like hierarchy in SEA. If any SEA members are watching, you probably know everyone kind of defaults on the officers to do things, which is what should happen. However, it's also important that we delegate out and everyone has their own responsibilities, because that is the way things most efficiently get done.

Richie:

Yeah, yeah. And you get more ownership of the project, right, if people are involved in getting it done, you have more ownership. So tell us what your plans are for the future and how you think maybe your SEA experience will help.

Spencer:

Yeah, so if you asked Spencer in junior year would have been that poly-sci major wanted to be a lawyer, but as I have grown and kind of explored what I want to do, I'm more into entrepreneurship, and that's. The thing, though, is that the skills you learn in SEA can be applied to whatever field you go into. Leadership, communication, time management All of those things are incredibly important and things that you will take with you for the rest of your life, regardless of your career.

Hudson:

Yeah, For me when I was always young. I would constantly be getting hurt. My parents would always come home and I'd be hurt or my dad would be away like stationed somewhere, and I would get hurt and I'd be in the hospital, so that, like me always getting hurt, kind of wanted me to go into the medical field and.

Hudson:

I've always just had that interest of like helping out others and my experience in SEA has really like helped me expand that, because I'm like constantly looking at different perspectives, helping people where they need, and then, like Spencer said, any skills that you learn in SEA can be applied to any job you want. Time management, delegating stuff is very important, especially in your adult life.

Matt:

What would be something you would say to maybe somebody that's thinking about joining SEA or thinking about getting involved?

Hudson:

I would tell them to get involved, because you meet so many people, you have so many opportunities that open up to you. Personally, one of my favorite things about school is getting to know my teachers, because they're the most interesting people that you will ever meet. They're so fun and just getting to know them like your advisor in the club. They all offer different opinions. I constantly go to my AP Lang teacher for advice and I'm in two of her clubs. Right now it's just getting. It's Miss Napperella.

Hudson:

Shout out, but she is she's wonderful, but I think that getting involved definitely creates like a very good and rich high school experience for you and you can leave high school knowing that you did the best that you could.

Spencer:

Yeah, I think you should so totally get to SEA simply for college applications. Yeah, don't do that. It's a lot of work, but I think if you want to get into SEA, you have to have a strong sense of yourself and of your community and you want to contribute to that community. I personally think that being able to make it more enjoyable in the small and simple ways really allows you to move on throughout the day.

Matt:

Then even if you can't get involved in SEA, I mean, it just seems like your message is to get involved in your school in some capacity to make it the best that it could possibly be.

Richie:

But we definitely appreciate your coming in so interesting talking to you guys, I feel every time we talk to students, especially high school students, I feel so much more secure about whose hands our society's going to be.

Matt:

Absolutely correct.

Richie:

Yeah, it's encouraging. Well, we want to take just a minute to shout out and congratulate all of our Chesapeake Public Schools teachers of the year. We especially want to highlight our category winners. Chelsea Nash was our elementary school teacher of the year. She's a deep creek elementary. Kathy Mustain was our middle school teacher of the year. She teaches at the Chesapeake Virtual Academy. And Maurice Frazier was our high school teacher of the year. He's at Oscar Smith High School. Our overall teacher of the year was Alyssa May from Brutts Road Primary. Congratulations again to all of our Chesapeake Public Schools teachers of the year.

Matt:

All right, everyone Welcome. This is Matt Graham and I am here with Whitney Roberson and Abigail Swisher or Abby Swisher, she goes by Abby and they are representing the Jollif Jaguars girls soccer inaugural championship winning team. Is that correct?

Whitney:

Yes, number one, number one.

Matt:

All right. So, whitney, tell us a little bit. You're the coach, yes, so go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Whitney:

So this is actually my well, I would say year and a half in coaching. I coached JV at Grassfield High School and this will be my second season in coaching with Chesapeake Public Schools. Previously I graduated from the Virginia Military Institute where I played division one soccer. I'm a teacher, first grade. Love those kids.

Matt:

And where do you teach?

Whitney:

At Deep Creek Elementary.

Matt:

Okay, so that's cool. So you're teaching at Deep Creek Elementary, but you come over here to Jollif to coach. How's that back and forth going?

Whitney:

It actually worked out perfectly because it's not too far. As soon as I left work, I would just come straight here, you know, put on my soccer stuff, get my cleats on and I was ready to roll. Yeah, it was pretty exciting to start the season off. We actually started over the summer. We started with conditioning. So, we did that in the morning, so it was like eight o'clock, were you there.

Abigail:

No.

Whitney:

I didn't come to any of them. She had club soccer.

Whitney:

It was during a high school soccer when I found out that middle school soccer was going to be a thing. I was really excited because I came through Chesapeake Public Schools there was no soccer when I played. I went to Hugo Owens Middle there's no soccer and I had to join the JV team, which was a really good opportunity for me in eighth grade. But sixth and seventh grade year I didn't get a chance to play soccer in middle school for my school. So I was really excited when that happened, More excited for the players, because you get to practice and play with the people that you go to school with. Those are like your best friends. So it was pretty exciting to figure all that out, so I jumped on it immediately.

Matt:

So, Abby, what was it like joining the middle school soccer team? I mean, like you heard your coach say she didn't have this opportunity.

Abigail:

I was super excited to get to play for the school. Then became closer friends with the girls on the team. Before those girls I was just like, oh, they go to our school. But now they're like my best friends, we're all seeing them in the hallway giving them a hug and they'll see you in the hallway. He's like great job last night. So when you're going to club, no one from the school knows what you're doing outside of school. But when you're doing it for the school, they all understand and they all see what you're doing and how good you are.

Matt:

Right, well, that's cool. And so you're, in what grade again? Eighth grade, eighth grade, and what did you do in the meantime, with those two years when soccer wasn't around?

Abigail:

I was still playing for club, but I was also doing the field hockey because that's closest to soccer. It's basically just soccer with a stick.

Matt:

Gotcha, gotcha, and so did that help prepare you for the season here, or was it easy transition?

Abigail:

I would say because for field hockey there are so many different levels of talent when we came to the school, and same with our team too. There was a bunch of different levels of talent, so you just have to adjust to the level of play.

Matt:

Do you plan on still playing field hockey, even though that you did soccer this year?

Abigail:

Yes, I do. There is this award. That's the, I think it's called. It's like the student athlete award. And you have to do two sports to get it and good grades.

Matt:

So that's what I'm trying to do Okay, go ahead, go get it. Aspirations and that's right.

Abigail:

I've been playing soccer for nine years now. I started at church when I was four, and all my siblings they're all at least five years older than me, so they've all played. I'm the only one that stuck to it, but also my stepdad played and he kind of pushed us out of play, is he pretty good at soccer. Yeah, he's pretty good. He's pretty good, I mean he was my main coach, Like I had other coaches, but throughout this whole time he's been my main coach.

Matt:

All right, so, whitney, tell us about this first season.

Whitney:

So to start the season, it was definitely I wouldn't say difficult, but it was a challenge that I had to overcome because I've never coached younger players. So at the high school all of my players were pretty much they had a feel for soccer, like my sixth graders and seventh graders. This might have been their first time playing on what we consider the big field.

Hudson:

So 11 be 11.

Whitney:

I did have a big number of people trying out, students trying out so that was also difficult as well. And, like Abby already mentioned, the talent level is there's so many different girls with different talents. So throughout the process of tryouts it was like, okay, what am I looking for exactly? Because I'm not necessarily looking for the best players I've ever seen, like we're in middle school, so I have to remember that. I have to take it back if you're not just like this isn't college, like I only graduated two years ago.

Whitney:

So, sometimes I am very, very competitive, yeah. So I definitely had to remind myself okay, what exactly am I looking for in a player? So throughout the tryout process, I was just looking for players who worked hard. If you can work hard, we can develop technical skills, we can develop tactical skills. So I was looking for those players that worked hard and were running hard. Playing off the ball, playing on the ball, talking, things like that were my main focus. Then, once the season started, I told the girls I was like you don't have to be the best player out here, I just want you working hard. If we can outwork the other team, we will be successful. And that's what I think the course of the season went. If we worked harder than the other teams, we were successful.

Matt:

Right and did y'all go undefeated?

Abigail:

No we actually lost the first round to Great Bridge and Hickory.

Matt:

Okay.

Abigail:

But then the second time we came back in one. But I remember coach saying she said everyone was crying after we lost to Hickory because I was on second loss and she said why are y'all crying? We're going to beat them in the finals.

Matt:

So what was it like? Tell me about your team camaraderie.

Abigail:

I think we all got along really well, like there wasn't ever really any drama throughout us. Which is one of the strongest points of soccer is you have to have a strong group, and not just physically but mentally, if the better we all communicate off the field, the better we communicate on the field. So that's by calling for the ball when we're open and that's also by like knowing where they're going to go off when they don't have the ball. Just all communicating off the field goes into communicating on the field.

Matt:

Right, so y'all were like one cohesive unit, yeah we were.

Whitney:

I told the girls as well, like Abby was saying, the Closer we are off the field, the closer we're gonna be on the field. So we started the season doing some team bonding activities. We tied Dutch shirts at one practice.

Abigail:

That was fun.

Whitney:

It was really fun and we played a lot of competitive games also to get the girls to compete against each other at practice, because if you can compete hard against your own teammates at practice, was stopping you from competing that hard against teammate or the opposing team?

Matt:

in a game. What was one of your most memorable times of season?

Abigail:

I would say well, of course, like after we won the championship and we were all hugging each other and it was so nice and also probably just like every day at practice because we would all just come out, be all in good moods, talk about our days at school and all. Oh my gosh, did you hear what Rad said Like all that stuff.

Matt:

So just having that opportunity to kind of, you know, hang out. Yet you're being competitive Abby. What are your goals for your soccer career?

Abigail:

I'm looking to keep playing soccer until college. So I'm trying to get into college for soccer. So if I have good grades, and good at soccer, then I can get at least, hopefully, a scholarship. That'd be amazing, right Into some school and then after that we'll see how it goes.

Matt:

So next year you're gonna be at what school?

Abigail:

I'm trying to go to. I wanna go to Deep Creek for the SMA program.

Matt:

Okay, that's awesome. Now, if she gets accepted and goes, you might have to compete against your coach at Grassfield. What's that gonna be like?

Abigail:

A little scary, I think, but I'll be looking to fight. We got it we got it and we got our goalie, our goalie from this year, is also trying to go to the SMA. Academy. So, and I've also been talking to a lot of my teammates trying to convince them, but I don't think I'm going very far.

Matt:

I feel like this is like one of those things in like the NFL, where people are trying to get trades happening things, so there's some things going on behind the scenes. It's kind of crazy. It's cool, though. What did it mean to you to represent your school and not having to wait until high school to do that?

Abigail:

It felt great because, instead of doing the JV for high school, you're competing against seniors and girls that aren't even close to being your age, but for middle school, you could compete with people that are your age and we would do the team victory walks and we would walk around the school and everyone would cheer you on and it was just a great experience. And we do all those victory walks by Mr Waddell. He's our athletic director. He's our athletic director and he comes together and does all the special things for us.

Matt:

And that's awesome To be able to start a middle school program basically from scratch. What was that like?

Whitney:

Yeah, it was definitely difficult, especially at the beginning of the season. Even during conditioning time there was no playbook to look back on to see what previous coaches, what previous teams, did. I had to come up with everything myself, but my soccer background definitely helped me out a lot. I use practices that I've done in the past from previous coaches, so shout out to them for getting me through a lot of the season.

Whitney:

But even when it came to gear, that was our first time having to go through uniforms and pick numbers and making sure that we have soccer balls and the goals were up and the fields were aligned. So that process from the, I would say, managerial standpoint was definitely difficult. But bringing a group of girls together to play soccer, that was the easy part. For me at least, that was the fun part, the part that I enjoyed the most being a coach. It kind of took me back to when I was playing At a lot of our practices I jumped in and played. So I will put on my cleats and play with them because it just brought out the fun in it. They loved when I played, I loved when I played.

Matt:

So soccer part was easy All the other stuff behind the scenes was difficult. Yeah, cause you're like you said, you're starting it from scratch. It seems like there was like a certain level of excitement.

Whitney:

Yeah, they were really excited to start and I was really excited. So I'm like, okay, well, I guess we can play full field. We have enough players, but do we have a goalie? That was always. The next question Is there another goalie.

Whitney:

So it was very exciting to get the girls started. I could tell they were all super excited. They were a little bit shy. They didn't really know each other that much. Like Abby said, they all they might have played club, but I don't think any of them played for the same club team. Yeah the bonds on our team definitely grew a lot. I can tell a difference between the friendships, even between the grade levels, the eighth graders and the seventh graders the sixth graders.

Whitney:

They're all like on the same grade. I get confused. I'm like wait, you're in seventh grade, are you sure? You're in sixth grade. Really yeah, so the bonds definitely grew, which is the part that I loved.

Matt:

Awesome. What is something that you think that our community should know about these new programs that are available?

Abigail:

I think that they should know that. Just to try out, even if you think you're not gonna be good, just try out. Who knows, you might make the team and just have a fun time.

Whitney:

I would say for girl soccer. A lot of girls are afraid to try out for school teams because their club teams are like you have to be a club practice. You have to be a club practice.

Whitney:

I was one of those players that sometimes had to make the difficult decision Okay, do I go to high school practice or do I go to club practice? So what I did this year with the middle school team was, if you have club practice, go to it, because I know you're still somewhere playing soccer. It's not like you're skipping practice. So I allowed my team if you have to leave early or you have to miss my practice, to go to club practice. It's okay. I don't want you having to make that difficult decision at such a young age and plus, they don't drive it's up to their parents. So I allow them to kind of have that freedom and I think that that's why we were very successful, because I didn't make my players choose. I still want you on the team. I still want to see what you're about, your work rate, your effort, because, like Abby has mentioned a lot, that bonds grow when you play for a school team.

Matt:

What would you say to a student or a middle school student that is interested in trying out for a girl's soccer?

Abigail:

Work Hard is basically. The moral of the story is they're not looking for the best skilled players, they're looking for the ones that work hard on and off the field. You might be at home juggling in the backyard, running in the backyard, like that's fine because you're beating all the kids that aren't doing that. So as long as you work harder than anyone else, you're gonna win.

Whitney:

I just want to give a shout out to Jolliff Middle School staff. They were very welcoming to me. I kind of felt like an outsider because, I mean, I was an outsider at first coming in and being the coach, but they were amazing. At the end of our season or our final game, when we won, it felt like a family and I loved every moment of it because I felt like Jolliff was my family. So shout out to them and shout out to all of my players Eighth graders, I'm gonna miss y'all. Sixth and seventh graders can't wait to see y'all next year.

Matt:

Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplify, the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. Make sure you subscribe or follow this podcast wherever you listen to them, and we're gonna sign off with a little bit more music from the Deep Creek High School Orchestra Quartet. We hope you have a great holiday season and happy new year.

People on this episode

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Dr. Chris Vail

Co-host
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Mr. Matt Graham

Co-host