Claira Kuball
The Green River High School Girls Soccer team is ready to learn, grow, and earn their place this season.
The Lady Wolves officially started practice last Monday, March 4, and they're hitting the ground running.
"We've been putting in a lot of work over the past two weeks and we've seen a lot of growth already," Head Coach Matthew Robles said. "I see a lot of potential with this team, even though we're young, that we'll be able to really do the things that we need to do."
Coach Robles admitted that he's "a little nervous" about the upcoming season simply because the team is "extremely young this year." He explained that the team only has two seniors and four juniors, and "out of that group, only three of them have any varsity-level experience."
Still, Coach Robles believes there's a lot of talent and strength going into the team, from both the athletes with some varsity experience who will be important building blocks, as well as from the new freshman students who have played competitively before and will be able to contribute.
The Lady Wolves will also have some important returning players. Isabel Vasco is coming back after an impressive freshman year in which she scored 38 goals for the Lady Wolves during the regular season, leading the state in goals going into the end of the season. Claira Kuball is also returning after leading the Lady Wolves in assists last year and getting lots of experience through playing time.
Unfortunately, the team also lost some valuable members, including losing Jayla Braden and Ella Stanton to injuries in previous seasons of sports. Braden and Stanton anchored the defense for the Lady Wolves Soccer team, according to Robles, so the defense will have to work hard. Still, the coach is optimistic.
"I think that as the year goes we'll grow stronger there, and I think that's actually going to be a position that we'll be strongest at, is the defensive shape and defensive mind frame," Coach Robles said.
The team is also focusing on improving their offensive game.
"We've been really working on cleaning up our ball control and passing," Robles explained. "That was something that we struggled with a lot last year. We were able to possess in games where we were the superior team, but when we got against teams that were on our level or were a little better than us, we really struggled to find possession. So we've been really focusing on making sure that we're focused the entire 80 minutes of a game for keeping possession and finding open targets."
Starting off the year, the Lady Wolves will have the opportunity to travel to Worland on March 22 and 23 to compete against teams from the east side of the state.
"So we'll actually get a good chance to see how those teams have grown or changed since last year," Coach Robles said.
After that, the first game of the regular season will be a home game against Pinedale on March 28. Last year, the Lady Wolves were able to definitively defeat Pinedale both at home and on the road. Coach Robles added that every team can change from season to season as players leave and come in, and you never know what to expect. Still, he is confident in the Lady Wolves.
Looking at the season as a whole, Robles is excited for his third year of coaching, and he hopes the team will be able to keep growing and getting stronger.
"The ultimate end-goal every year is to make State, and I think that we still have a very good shot at that," Coach Robles said. "I do think this team has every piece that we need to get there and to compete at that level."
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