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PHS soccer squad reclaims
DoDDS Division II title
PHS soccer squad reclaims
DoDDS Division II title
By Hugh C. McBride
During a conversation with members of Patch High School’s championship girls’ soccer team, one wouldn’t be all that surprised if violin music began wafting in from a nearby rooftop.
Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock most likely didn’t have high school soccer in mind 40 years ago when they wrote the score for the award-winning “Fiddler on the Roof,” but the hit song “Tradition” from that show could serve as the soundtrack for the Panthers’ 2005 highlight reel.
“Our team is built on tradition,” said senior Bethany Schmidt, one of three captains who led the squad to the Department of Defense Dependents Schools’ Division II championship May 21 in Kaiserslautern. “All those little traditions help us to focus on the game.”
Describing the PHS girls soccer lifestyle as having “little traditions” is akin to calling Manchester United fans “somewhat dedicated” – but in both cases, commitment to a common goal forges a force that few are willing (or able) to reckon with.
“Some teams just practice and play together,” noted senior tri-captain Jessica Russell. “But during the season, we pretty much live together.”
From three “Manuel Loops” at the outset of every practice to potluck dinners the night before every game, there are few surprises – and virtually no individual activities – in the life of a Panther player. In fact, the only surprise (to an “outsider” at least) is that this hyperfamiliarity breeds not a whiff of contempt.
“It makes you want to be a part of something,” said senior tri-captain Meredith Brown. “I know this is one of the best experiences I’ll ever have.”
New path, familiar destination
For all their talk of following in the footsteps of their predecessors, the 2005 squad didn’t do everything the same way it had been done before.
For example, the team actually failed to win – twice! – during the Division II tournament in Kaiserslautern, tying Bitburg 0-0 and falling 1-0 to Naples in pool play.
For the Panthers, which went undefeated during the regular season and earned the tournament’s top seed, the less-than-perfect start served “as a wake-up,” Schmidt said – but wasn’t cause for panic, she noted.
After the loss to Naples, “we just said, ‘remember this feeling,’” Brown recalled. “Do you like this feeling, or the feeling you get after we win?”
Team members answered that rhetorical question on the field, clawing their way into the championship game, where they faced a familiar opponent: Naples.
As did their first meeting, the championship match ended 1-0, but thanks to Laura Ingold’s first-half goal, the Panthers were once again champs.
In addition to cementing the team’s championship run, the goal also produced what, on the PHS squad, passes for internal dissention. Immediately after the game, Ingold described her goal as “pure luck,” but Schmidt later contradicted her teammate, telling a reporter that the score was “a great goal.”
Finally able to take their eyes off the prize that is the division crown, the PHS girls turned their attention toward the person who embodies the team’s tradition of excellence: Coach Tom Manuel.
“We need to give [Manuel] more credit than he usually gets,” said junior Heather Hall. “He’s the only coach I’ve ever respected this much.”
In addition to his expertise (check out the stretch of championship banners in the PHS gym for evidence), Manuel’s off-field traditions also earned high marks from his charges. As freshman Samantha Beatty noted, “every morning when he sees me he says ‘good morning.’”
[This story originally appeared in the June 7, 2005, edition of The Citizen.]
During a conversation with members of Patch High School’s championship girls’ soccer team, one wouldn’t be all that surprised if violin music began wafting in from a nearby rooftop.
Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock most likely didn’t have high school soccer in mind 40 years ago when they wrote the score for the award-winning “Fiddler on the Roof,” but the hit song “Tradition” from that show could serve as the soundtrack for the Panthers’ 2005 highlight reel.
“Our team is built on tradition,” said senior Bethany Schmidt, one of three captains who led the squad to the Department of Defense Dependents Schools’ Division II championship May 21 in Kaiserslautern. “All those little traditions help us to focus on the game.”
Describing the PHS girls soccer lifestyle as having “little traditions” is akin to calling Manchester United fans “somewhat dedicated” – but in both cases, commitment to a common goal forges a force that few are willing (or able) to reckon with.
“Some teams just practice and play together,” noted senior tri-captain Jessica Russell. “But during the season, we pretty much live together.”
From three “Manuel Loops” at the outset of every practice to potluck dinners the night before every game, there are few surprises – and virtually no individual activities – in the life of a Panther player. In fact, the only surprise (to an “outsider” at least) is that this hyperfamiliarity breeds not a whiff of contempt.
“It makes you want to be a part of something,” said senior tri-captain Meredith Brown. “I know this is one of the best experiences I’ll ever have.”
New path, familiar destination
For all their talk of following in the footsteps of their predecessors, the 2005 squad didn’t do everything the same way it had been done before.
For example, the team actually failed to win – twice! – during the Division II tournament in Kaiserslautern, tying Bitburg 0-0 and falling 1-0 to Naples in pool play.
For the Panthers, which went undefeated during the regular season and earned the tournament’s top seed, the less-than-perfect start served “as a wake-up,” Schmidt said – but wasn’t cause for panic, she noted.
After the loss to Naples, “we just said, ‘remember this feeling,’” Brown recalled. “Do you like this feeling, or the feeling you get after we win?”
Team members answered that rhetorical question on the field, clawing their way into the championship game, where they faced a familiar opponent: Naples.
As did their first meeting, the championship match ended 1-0, but thanks to Laura Ingold’s first-half goal, the Panthers were once again champs.
In addition to cementing the team’s championship run, the goal also produced what, on the PHS squad, passes for internal dissention. Immediately after the game, Ingold described her goal as “pure luck,” but Schmidt later contradicted her teammate, telling a reporter that the score was “a great goal.”
Finally able to take their eyes off the prize that is the division crown, the PHS girls turned their attention toward the person who embodies the team’s tradition of excellence: Coach Tom Manuel.
“We need to give [Manuel] more credit than he usually gets,” said junior Heather Hall. “He’s the only coach I’ve ever respected this much.”
In addition to his expertise (check out the stretch of championship banners in the PHS gym for evidence), Manuel’s off-field traditions also earned high marks from his charges. As freshman Samantha Beatty noted, “every morning when he sees me he says ‘good morning.’”
[This story originally appeared in the June 7, 2005, edition of The Citizen.]
Except where otherwise indicated, all text & images on this site copyright © Hugh C. McBride, 2001-2007.
For information about this site e-mail web@hughcmcbride.com.
For information about this site e-mail web@hughcmcbride.com.
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