Despite their season being postponed until spring 2021, the Boise State women’s soccer team has remained proactive and hopeful during unpredictable times.
On Sept. 24, the Mountain West announced on Twitter that football would be returning Oct. 24. With that announcement came great joy for most. However, sports like volleyball and soccer will not receive the opportunity to play this fall.
“Not too jealous, but I would really like to be out there playing right now,” said junior goalkeeper, Sydney Smith. “We’ve been in an uncertain time for so long that it is exciting to see teams actually getting to play.”
From losing a big senior class to months of quarantine, the team came into this year with a new perspective. With 10 incoming freshmen and multiple transfers, the team has been using the time to rebuild and regroup.
Photo by Mackenzie Hudson | The Arbiter
The Broncos plan to kick off their first game of the season in February 2021. The team is excited to play and work for what they hope to be another Mountain West Championship. As for now, they’ll be tying up their cleats and hitting the practice field.
As practices have returned with health and safety guidelines, only two players will be returning to their original positions on the field. The majority of the team will be switching their position and acclimating to a new one. These changes haven’t stopped them from moving forward.
“I think the teams that do really well are the ones that get better every day,” said Head Coach Jim Thomas. “Our job is to try and teach, help and guide them to be able to get better on the field, off the field, in school, in their personal life, family life whatever it may be. So, we just dedicate ourselves to that process and that usually comes out pretty good on the field.”
Coming off of a Mountain West Championship and having their spring season cut short there have been a lot of changes made within the program. Their goal this season is to play hard, win games and hopefully get another championship under their belt.
“If you ever don’t try to win a game, you’ve got some questions to ask yourself,” Thomas said.
Losing a lot of their starters caused players like senior forward Aubree Chatterton to step up and remain positive for the rest of her teammates. According to Chatterton, this process has not been the easiest.
“We all hoped the problem would’ve been solved, but we came in with high hopes and knew that anything was possible,” Chatterton said. “We were still going to train and be a team no matter what happened.”
For a while, the team had to practice in small groups until Central District Health approved of groups with larger numbers. Having separate practices was difficult, but Chatterton believes her leadership role on the team kept everyone relaxed and calm about the whole situation.
“Right now we are just fortunate enough to be able to even practice together and play together as a team,” Chatterton said.
