Pahrump Valley High School is home to the JV Trojan soccer team. The JV boys had a rough season this year with their overall win-loss being two wins and eight losses. Their spirit never broke though; they played their best all season and strived to be better for the next season. The boys played and practiced hard this season and never stopped fighting to win. The boys have said that even though they lost a fair amount of their games, they still had fun even when they caught a loss.
First-time soccer player Stephen Geoffroy has stated that he played soccer this year to improve his teamwork skills and to try making some new friends. Geoffroy says that he agrees with the way the coaches play the team and how he coaches the team. Even though the team is like a family, he thinks that they need to work on their communication while in games and intense situations, even in practice because it will make them play that much better for next season.
Kohlzin Park, the team captain, has similar opinions as Geoffroy. He also seems to think that the team needs to learn more fundamental skills and go into depth on them; he believes the team needs to practice those skills more so their ball control and passing are like second nature. The team, their parents, and others seem to think that one of their main issues is that there needs to be more penalties on the team and they think the coaches are too lenient on the basic mistakes that can ruin a game or hurt someone. The team states that they will do some penalties like running laps after accomplishing something good like scoring a goal in practice or scrimmages so it wouldn’t be considered a punishment. The coach said that he believes punishments should not be put in place to encourage the boys to play better, but instead, it should just be something that they want to achieve on their own.
The head JV coach, Devin Peterson, stated that he started coaching the Trojan JV boys’ soccer team because when he grew up he used to have coaches who ruined his thoughts on the game but he later had coaches who made him love the game again. He wanted to start coaching and give the boys the best experience that he could to inspire the young athletes to continue playing the game for many years to come. Peterson states that the way he plays the boys and the position he puts them in during games is so the boys can be challenged and they can learn new strengths that they otherwise would not have learned by staying where they are comfortable on the field.
The JV boy’s soccer games can be entertaining no matter if they win or if they lose, so next year try to go watch some of the games and maybe talk to some players. Soccer can be an interesting sport if you try it or maybe even just watch it.
