In Spring 2016, Priscilla Rivas was the junior varsity soccer coach and eventually varsity head coach the following year. East’s girls soccer team hasn’t had their best seasons the past few years. According to Maxpreps, the last time the varsity team won a conference game was in 2015. They have been in development and started a new program with a whole new roster, except with two returning players when Rivas became head coach. Last season they lost every game.

“Losing games affects the team at times. They start being really hard on themselves. We knew our mistakes and we ended up working on them afterwards. Each game is a learning experience,” said Rivas.

But this year the girls are doing much better. The E-Rabs are much stronger than they were two years ago and are more connected than ever. Winning two games against the Belvidere Bucs (4-2) and the Auburn Knights (3-2), and have lost one against the Hononegah Indians (5-1) so far this season.

“The competition is tough,” says Hailey Hunter, class of 2020. “All teams are very equal in skill set and going against teams that play as well as you make you have to switch things up and work really hard to win.”

Team captain Suheily Resendiz, class of 2019, also mentioned that the team performance is extremely better than last year. The fact that we now know how each of us play and we are more focused on getting things done.

Soccer has a different dynamic than other sports.

“How we interact with one another really impacts us. We started having our team perform better as one at a varsity level. We are a group that when we play, we play as a family,” said Rivas.

The girls soccer team is progressing slowly but surely.