On October 28, the seniors of the Colonia High School girls’ soccer team celebrated their last year on the team with a game against St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Seniors
This year the team will be saying bye to 8 of their players, Nicole Budka, Angela Covert, Skylar DeGeorge, Skylar Galvez, Brianna Hendricks, Gabriella Kucel, Maeghan Prophete, and Dorothy Silva. Most of the players have been playing on the school’s soccer team for 4 years. Throughout these years they had tons of achievements. Skylar Galvez is a center-mid and captain and her proudest achievement was being on an all white division team her junior year. Nicole Budka is a center-mid and her proudest moment was scoring a free kick against Woodbridge. Soccer is a big part of these girls’ lives. Many of them are planning to continue playing soccer as they go on to college.
On the field the girls are constantly teaching and learning from one another. Angela Covert, an outside-mid and captain, says that being on the team “It taught me how to be outspoken and be a leader.”
Gabriella Kucel, the goalkeeper, added “Being on this team taught me how to be committed to a sport, activity, or anything else in life through the ups and downs of it.”
The Coach
Stephan Carew, the coach, has been playing soccer for as long as he could remember. He had played for his high school team, St. Joseph University, and recently has been playing for the men’s league at Howell United. For the past five years Carew has been coaching the girl’s varsity team.
When asked about what he’ll miss most about the current seniors he responded, “Their attitudes, they got a really good attitude, a lot of them are all about the team.”
Carew has been coaching most of the seniors for about four years. During that time, they always taught him something. In those years they’ve taught him to be humble and calm.
He also mentions how “They’ve definitely kept me grounded at times when I start to lose what we’re here about and keep me in my lane.”
The Game
The game ended with St. Thomas Aquinas winning 1-0, a goal scored during overtime. According to highschoolsports.nj.com, Kucel had 5 saves during the game. Although the girls lost, they had the biggest smile on their faces. They wanted to end the night happy to celebrate one of the last times the seniors would be on the field. They ended with honoring the seniors and then continuing to celebrate by having dinner with one another in the cafeteria.
