Wins and losses often measure success.
For Pueblo Centennial’s girls' soccer team, success is something they have been accustomed to for quite some time now, and this year is no exception.
Getting out to a hot start this season, the Lady Bulldogs have a blend of experience and youth on their team, which is setting up nicely for them to have another successful season and reach the postseason.
“I think we've built such a great tradition here that I guess success is an expectation,” coach Jeff Sterling said before the Centennials' 10-0 win over Pueblo South Thursday.
“It's just our level that we expect out of ourselves. But what certainly helped us is we've got five freshmen that are really, really contributing a lot, and that's really helped,” Sterling said. “But our older players have also come back knowing that we graduated some very good players last year, and they stepped up their game also, so that's been a contributing factor.”
The combination of the freshmen excelling and the seniors stepping up to lead has been a great one so far for the Bulldogs, who have posted a 5-0-2 record so far this season. But is it sustainable for them?
“We are young, and one thing we haven't had much of is that we've only had a couple of games where we've kind of been tested,” Sterling said. “Hopefully, we can get in a couple more of those games, and even if we lose a couple, it's got to be some learning experiences. We have to start being a little more challenged than we have been in a couple of these games.”
Sterling would go on to say that because they had to drop to Class 3A for most of their non-league competition, it's been tough to find teams that will test them like the way Pueblo County and Pueblo West used to challenge them year in and year out.
Now the team is prepared to take on whomever they have in front of them, and the growth and development of this is evident across the board, including in their captain.
Ella Mora Precia distinguished herself over the winter as the girl who wanted to step up into that leadership role for the team. She talked about what it was like to bring this team together and have them clicking early on this season.
