
{"id":2235,"date":"2008-04-03T06:53:23","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T14:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/04\/03\/carrboro-high-soccer-team-learning-growing\/"},"modified":"2008-04-03T06:53:23","modified_gmt":"2008-04-03T14:53:23","slug":"carrboro-high-soccer-team-learning-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/04\/03\/carrboro-high-soccer-team-learning-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro High soccer team learning, growing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Alexandra Mansbach<\/strong><br \/>\nCarrboro Commons writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even the pouring rain couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dampen the spirits of the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Carrboro High School soccer team on a recent game night.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro High School took on the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics on March 19 in a game riddled with rain, wind and power outages. But the team stayed strong, passing accurately and communicating clearly \u00e2\u20ac\u201d eventually ending the game with a 1-1 tie in overtime. The Carrboro soccer squad appeared to be anything but a new team.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is an entirely new program. The teams are actually very young,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Scott Swartzwelder, president of the CHS Athletic Booster Club.<\/p>\n<p>The newness of the program gives students who have little experience in sports a chance to play and, because there are no seniors, no players will graduate at the end of this school year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are lots of kids with little experience,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Swartzwelder said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got some great athletes here, and a lot of these kids wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even get to play somewhere else.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But the athletics program has faced some setbacks. The original athletic director became ill a few months into the school year, Swartzwelder said. But the new director, April Ross, has really stepped up to the plate.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A new program with a new director is a challenge,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that the program has transitioned relatively smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>The women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soccer team is one of the many teams at CHS that are enjoying a blossoming program. The team consists of nine freshman, three sophomores and six juniors \u00e2\u20ac\u201d only a handful of which have varsity experience.<\/p>\n<p>But things are going well for the young team.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Things are good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Robin Bulleri, head coach of the CHS women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soccer team. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 7-2-1.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Bulleri said she was able to work out most of the program\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficulties in the summer and fall.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Things are running pretty smoothly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I coached the boys in the fall, so we kind of worked the kinks out then.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Bulleri held team tryouts for the girls, but no one was cut. This gave younger players a chance to participate if they committed themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The team also chose captains to hold leadership roles and support their teammates \u00e2\u20ac\u201d something especially important because the team is so young.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I let the kids vote. They needed to vote for a player who already had high school experience,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bulleri said.<\/p>\n<p>The captains are Vicky Aldana and Marshall Babcock, juniors. Bulleri has known them since their freshman years, and she is impressed with their leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They really are mature,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can trust them with responsibilities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Parents play a major role in keeping the athletics at CHS up and running.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We try to organize a team parent for each team to take tickets and work concessions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Swartzwelder said.<\/p>\n<p>He said parents have been very helpful in keeping the young program organized by volunteering and doing their best to help out.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been really great with taking the initiative because the Booster [Club] is a really small group,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We really started at ground zero and are working our way up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Bulleri agreed, saying the parents of her team have really stepped up and helped out.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All of the parents signed up to volunteer to take tickets and bring the kids snacks before games,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bulleri said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I communicate with them, and they communicate with me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Swartzwelder said the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s administrators have also aided in the development of the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The support we got from the principal, Jeff Thomas, was really wonderful. He has been very supportive of the sports programs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Swartzwelder said.<\/p>\n<p>He said Thomas wanted as many coaches as possible to be teachers, which Swartzwelder said is beneficial to the students.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You want the coaches to have relationships with the players off the field too,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bulleri, a science teacher at CHS, is happy to be head soccer coach. She is pleased with the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s progress and hopes to continue growing next year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Alexandra Mansbach is a UNC-CH student writing for the Carrboro Commons, the bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Carrboro produced by Jock Lauterer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Journalism class.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alexandra Mansbach Carrboro Commons writer Even the pouring rain couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dampen the spirits of the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Carrboro High School soccer team on a recent game night. Carrboro High School took on the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics on March 19 in a game riddled with rain, wind and power outages. But the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}