By  JASMINE ROSALES

Back for another season, coaches and student athletes prepare for the 2021-22 soccer season at Citrus Valley High School. Tryouts for the girls’ soccer program were held from Monday, Oct. 18 to Thursday, Oct. 21 from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m..

As players and coaches alike returned for a new season, mask restrictions have been lifted and students have the opportunity to practice comfortably mask free.

Junior varsity girls’ soccer coach Cassondra Delgado and varsity girls’ soccer coach Norma Mendez observe girls scrimmaging a small game  (Photo from Allen Thoe)

Coach Kim Zollinger, the freshman coach, says, “The hype of a new soccer season is underway for the girls soccer program at Citrus Valley. As coaches, we are looking forward to another great season. The tryouts for the 2021-2022 season has blown us away with the amount of student-athletes participating and the competition is definitely present. As the freshmen coach, I look forward to having a season for the freshmen team to compete in and experience high school level soccer. I feel blessed to be a part of an incredible program of athletes and coaches.” 

During the four days of tryouts, the days were organized to give the athletes an opportunity to showcase their talent to the coaches.

 Coach Cassondra Delgado, the junior varsity coach states, “I am very excited to be back for another year of coaching. I enjoy working with the coaches and interacting with the girls in the soccer program. Something I am really excited about is the new talent coming in this year. We have a lot of great players, so I can’t wait to compete and play a high level of quality soccer.” 

On day one, coaches set up five different stations for the girls to cycle through each of them and have the opportunity to show their skills. In the five stations, there was a 35-yard kick, a small shuttle run, shots on goal, dribbling and a 40-yard sprint.

 On day two, girls were encouraged to run a mile and a half under 12 minutes for varsity due to the high amount of running the sport requires for conditioning. After the run, coaches separated the girls by their last names and finished up stats from the previous day. 

On day three of tryouts, girls were split into three to four players and played small one-on-one games and so on amongst each other.

 Nearing the end of tryouts, day four was the big day where the girls really got to show their abilities and played multiple half-field scrimmages.

Coach Norma Mendez instructs girls on what day 1 of tryouts will consist of and how they will be scoring their stats. (Photo by Allen Thoe)

After tryouts came to an end, coaches and teams began practices preparing for the preseason to kickstart the 2021-22 season. Underway for the league season as the new year rings in, teams of all three levels begin their preseason games against local high schools. Schools throughout the Inland Empire have all set up friendly scrimmages amongst one another to prepare their teams for league games. 

In the month of December, preseason gives teams the opportunity to begin playing as a team.