Soccer team unites like family

When are sport teams like a family? At Lindhurst High School, it is when the players unite together and become one.

To the LHS soccer team players, their teammates and coaches are their second family. They eat together, sing together, practice hard together, win together and lose together.

Babe Ruth once said, "The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the team won't be worth a dime."

LHS varsity soccer coach Eric Hoefler said, "This is the most talented team I have ever had. The biggest challenge being faced currently is the ability to work as one. Soccer is a sport where you play with your heart and you don't think. They think way too much.

"It's our seniors' last year of playing with this team, and when things get tough, they stop relying on their team. They feel they have to carry their team on their shoulders. All I want is for them to realize: That's not what a team is," Mr. Hoefler added. He often tells his players: "They can't do it without you; you can't do it without them."

I sat with the team during lunch one day, and I noticed how much they love each other. It's like they would do anything for one another, and even though they have had a few bad games, they don't give up on each other.

I asked the six varsity players at the table what they thought about their team. They all said pretty much the same thing.

Erik Machuch, a senior, and Gabriel Vasquez, a junior, said, "We have a good team off the field, but as a whole, we need to come together; only a few players give their all. Bench needs to step up and play as hard as the others."

Another player, Ivan Ubis, a senior, said, "We are good ... good team, but we need to play more like a family. We have great defenders, fast midfielders and strikers that accomplish their job. We are a family off the field, but on the field, we tend to lose that."

The team members are determined, and they never give up. The LHS Blazers fight for what they want, and at times, it doesn't always happen the way we all wish, but they don't let it get to them.

Many students around school said the team is losing because it has so many injured players; however, that doesn't stop them from putting their all into games.

Our soccer team doesn't only play on the field, they play a part in our community as well. They encourage people who go to games to donate canned food for the less fortunate, which is delivered to churches or homeless shelters.

The Blazers soccer team puts their all into playing both on and off the field, and our school supports them 100 percent. Be a Blazer and come out and support our soccer team.

Ashley Hickey is a senior at Lindhurst High School. Her column appears every six weeks in Education.