The Memorial girls soccer team has started this season strong, going undefeated at the Arlington Tournament before having last week’s home tournament canceled because of the weather.
After spending more than two decades at Wichita Falls High School, Rob Woodard is Memorial’s girls soccer coach. The Messenger sat down with Woodard to discuss the Mavericks’ plans for their first season and setting the tone for future ones.
Q: What are some of the things that you are looking forward for this year?
A: I’m just looking forward to the progress of all the girls. How they come together as one from combining three schools into two and just seeing how all these girls from the different schools come together. See how they continue to grow together and become one team.
Q: What are your expectations for the first season?
A: I am just really looking forward to how they jell together and looking forward to seeing how far we can go. We have a lot of talent on our team and it’s going be an exciting year. We’ve started the season off really well and looking to just continue to build from then.
Q: Who are some key players this year?
A: There is a lot of talent, I’ve got Kamora Johnson, Mariah Thompson, Bella Wood, Aubrey Calderon. I could go on and on, there are a lot of solid players in the team.
Q: What are your impressions after the first games of this season?
A: It went really well. We played two 6A schools and one 5A and we won two of them and tied one. The game we tied was against Arlington High, and they were the district champions last year in 6A. and so that was a good tournament for us, and the girls really responded well. So after the tournament, you have other feelings about it, like more optimistic feelings about. Just knowing that if we set the bar at that point, just knowing that we can get better and better, that we could be a very dangerous team when it comes to district and playoffs.
Q: What have you learned about your team in the first games of this season?
A: I have learn that they don’t ever stop. They battle to the very end. We played Arlington High. We went down by one goal. Minute and a half later, we came back and scored to tie it. Then we went down two to one. And then about three minutes later, we came back and timed it. And they never stopped. They just keep battling. And that is a sign of a potentially really solid team.
Q: If you had to describe your team in three words, what would they be?
A: Resilient, talented, never quit.
