The girls Hempfield Area soccer team has gone through a rough patch for the past couple of years. The last time the team has even scored a goal was in the 2020 season. The last time they won a game or made it to the WPIAL playoffs was in 2019. Still, the girls have persevered after all these years.
After years of no goals or wins, the girls team managed to have a staggering twenty-nine members on the team this season. Despite the struggles, head coach James (Jim) Jones philosophy of coaching gets the girls to stay on the team with a positive attitude. He says, “I want the girls to have fun while being productive. If they are having fun then they will come back. It’s not always about the win-loss record, it’s about the atmosphere”.
Despite the team not totally focusing on the win-loss record, on August 26, 2023, the girls soccer team beat Greensburg 1-0 to give the girls their first win in years. Sofia Lopez Diaz, who scored the winning goal, said, “It felt good and I was really excited and couldn’t believe it for one moment”. Sofia thinks that this year the team has more motivation and wants to be remembered for “being the change”.
Some of the members of the boys team witnessed the goal such as team captain Braden Crowe who said, “the crowd was the most excited I’ve ever seen for a Hempfield soccer game”. This shows just how much it meant to everyone involved in the program.
Coach Jones said “Honestly being around the program for so many years and knowing what this team went through last year, it was pretty emotional.” The girls clearly mean a lot to him. He says, “It’s like having twenty-nine daughters that are all pulling me in different directions. But as a family we all still have that one goal in mind.”
His goals are to have a “positive experience” and “to get better every time we take that field”. He wants to “accomplish the small goals so we can eventually tackle the larger goals”.
Jim Jones’s coaching is definitely effective with Sofia Lopez Diaz stating “I like these coaches; they’re nice and support me”.
Their attitude is the same each game. Jones says “they look forward to every match” and that he does think that they have “a couple more winnable games”. Needless to say, the future looks bright for the program, and girls are glad that they finally broke the streak.
