With great pride, we salute the undefeated season put together
by the Gilroy High School soccer team.
With great pride, we salute the undefeated season put together by the Gilroy High School soccer team.
Gilroy High’s soccer squad, now 19-0-5, represents the best of the sometimes dubious marriage between academics and athletics. The bond between players and their coaches has blossomed into a season of solidarity that has transcended the “average” undefeated season.
This is a team that has won on determination, guts and, dare we say it, love. At the season’s outset, players signed pledges that reflected personal commitments to themselves and each other, and, as a group, they developed goals for the team. Those goals were written upon a large banner and reflected upon routinely by team members during the course of the season.
Gilroy’s Mustangs haven’t necessarily been the bigger, stronger, faster players that make up a typical championship team. And they have not had a winning playoff tradition from which to draw strength and confidence.
What they do have is togetherness and a coaching duo that has extracted the utmost effort from each team member. Armando Padilla and Brian Hall, a World Cup soccer official who has graciously given back his expertise to the sport he loves, have pushed their players hard. But they have coupled that push with a joyful spirit and a team quest that has motivated and uplifted the players. As Padilla said during the season, “We’re in search of that perfect game.”
What the young men on Gilroy High’s soccer team will discover – if they have not already – is that in soccer, as in life, it is the journey, not the destination. What they have also been taught is that the best journeys have common elements: commitment, self-discipline, working with others toward a common goal, fun and the acceptance of new challenges.
Under the guidance of the coaches, the players have learned that giving their best effort in practice and games yields results. And what observers of this team will tell you is that every player has developed the heart of a lion. That became particularly evident during the year on a few occasions when the team’s undefeated season seemed destined to fall by the wayside. Each time Gilroy fought back and persevered. This special team would not let go of its dreams and goals without a ferocious battle.
Wednesday at Mustang Stadium they punctuated the season with a 2-0 victory over Woodside to advance to the second round of the Central Coast Section playoffs. Beating Woodside, an up-peninsula, big, physical team, is the perfect exclamation point for a remarkable season thus far.
Regardless of what happens in the playoffs from here on out, the GHS soccer team has set a standard for coaching and competing that the community can be extremely proud of.
There’s an old sports saying that applies – “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.” Gilroy High came prepared this season, and it has been a joy to behold.
