SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — Katie Farley was getting ready to swallow her pride for three months and Clare Tershy was preparing the younger girls for what was assured to be another tough season.
To say the duo has been pleasantly surprised by the success of this year’s girls’ soccer team is a massive understatement.
St. Francis High is off to its best start in the program’s 13 years of existence. The Sharks have won their first five games after a decade-plus of failing to win more than three games total in a single season.
With an influx of numbers and a new hands-on coaching staff, St. Francis had a feeling there would be a jump in competitiveness. But the 5-0 start is still dumbfounding to everyone involved.
“Having the numbers sort of gave us the expectation of being better but being this good, it’s amazing,” said Farley, a senior defender. “More than I could have ever asked for.”
Over three varsity seasons, Farley and Tershy have suffered more losses than any high school athlete ever should. Last season they failed to win a game, the year before they won three and as freshman they won only one.
They lost at least 44 games in that span. Most of the time they played with nine or 10 players. Girls did not want to show up to games because they knew they were going to not only lose, but lose badly.
Some girls were fine with forfeiting when there were only eight players available. Farley, who last year was named the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s Most Inspirational Player, and Tershy were not.
“I would remember trying to talk the girls out of taking a forfeit and now it’s come to this where there’s so much energy and support around the program,” said Tershy, who plays attack and leads the team with 11 goals.
Added Farley, who has played competitive soccer since she could walk: “I’m really competitive, so it was an emotionally tough period. It was an adjustment but you got to keep the spirits up.”
Now it seems like the duo’s patience has paid off.
St. Francis is not only undefeated to start the season but the program — from top to bottom — is unrecognizable. They have outscored their opponents 35-0, have a sustainable junior varsity team for the first time in the program’s history and have two coaches that are full-time employees at the school.
Vince D. Monroy is the head coach and Chris Croghan serves as an assistant. Monroy is the program’s fifth coach in the last five seasons.
“That’s where I think I have an advantage over my predecessors,” said Monroy, who previously led the boys’ team for four seasons. “To have two full-time coaches is huge.”
Being on-campus coaches allowed Monroy and Croghan to do some recruiting through the halls and classrooms. They were able to persuade a handful of girls that have never played soccer to tryout and even had Riley Croghan, Chris’ daughter, give up basketball to return to the pitch for the first time since eighth grade.
“I did not expect us to be this good,” said Riley Croghan, who is second on the team in goals with nine. “I was expecting to come out and maybe win a couple of games but I wasn’t expecting us to win our first five.”
Despite the jump in numbers and the addition of the new coaching staff, the expectations were tempered at the start of the season.
Farley, Tershy and even Monroy had no clue if the changes would be good enough to prevent another losing season.
Senior Savannah Guel said she had only one thought running through her mind as she laced up her cleats for the first day of practice: “It’s going to be another year of the same. We’re just going to get demolished.”
But Guel, who transferred from Soquel as a junior, and the Sharks had a reassuring sign in their first action of the season. They lost 4-2 to Christopher High in a scrimmage. It was a loss but the fact that it was not a multi-goal beatdown had several of the players jumping around with joy.
“That game really made it clear to us that we didn’t have anything to be discouraged about this season,” Guel said.
The Sharks only have moments to be proud of this season.
“It feels so good to actually play some real soccer,” Farley said.
They will finish their preseason with a game at Anzar today at 3:30 p.m. and a home game against Seaside High on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Then a brutally tough SCCAL season begins in January.
St. Francis has won only three league games since becoming a varsity program in 2005.
Competing in one of the top leagues in the Central Coast Section will test just how much the Sharks have improved since last season.
St. Francis could very well finish in the bottom half of the league but that would be a change for the positive in the players’ eyes.
“I will be completely happy with that,” Guel said. “Senior year at St. Francis and we win three or four games in league? I’d be ecstatic. I’d be so happy.”
APTOS
Aptos High is in the midst of a special season.
The Mariners are 2-1-2 in a brutal preseason slate that includes three reigning CCS champions and two squads ranked within the top 45 teams in the nation.
The senior duo of Monserrat Hernandez Marquez and Paige Dueck lead the way for a loaded Aptos team that has hopes of not only winning its fifth straight SCCAL title but competing for its first-ever section championship, too.
The Mariners were bounced in the quarterfinals of the prestigious Open Division last season and they lost in the Open semifinals the season before.
“I think this is our year,” Hernandez Marquez said. “We want to take it one game at a time and finish first in league but I’m pretty sure this is our year. Especially because it’s my senior year. I want to make it our year.”
Hernandez Marquez is a midfielder with a special feel for the ball that was named the SCCAL Player of the Year last season and will play NCAA Division I soccer for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next season.
Dueck is a technically-sound forward that earned the league’s Offensive Player of the Year honor as a junior and is heading to Santa Clara University to also play D-I soccer.
The two are just the tip of the iceberg on one of the more talented teams to play in Santa Cruz County in recent memory.
Senior forwards Marylu Escutia, Maya Pruett and Sophia Audisio will all see time in the attack along with junior Haley Veldhuis and freshman Gisselle Vasquez.
Seniors Grace Rothman and Mary McGinn and juniors Bella McDaniel and Jasmine Taylor make up the strong backline that will try to make life easy for junior keeper Caroline Miller.
Sophomore Brynn Mitchell has moved from defense to the midfield and has starred in the role in the early season.
“It’s been a lot of fun to watch them come together,” said Aptos head coach Jessica Perkin. “The leadership from the returners and the upperclassmen combined with some new, young blood, everyone has been working hard. There’s no drop-off this year. Everyone who comes in off the bench can control the ball and play skillful soccer.”
Aptos has not lost a league game since 2014 but Santa Cruz High, Scotts Valley High and Soquel High all seem like threats to the Mariners’ league crown. San Lorenzo Valley High and St. Francis should also be dangerous after improving plenty during the offseason.
