the murrays: Whitney’s Epic First High School Soccer Season

The other thing that happened at the beginning of August was THIS--

Whitney made the JV Soccer Team at Salem Hills High School and became a Skyhawk! #34! I got this cake on sale to celebrate. It meant her leaving ALA, which was SUCH a hard decision for her, and about broke my heart! To have her not at the same school as her siblings. It still pains me a little! But I KNOW it was the right move for her. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. ALA's soccer team was garbage. Not just that they lost, but that the school didn't care enough about it to make an effort to make it good. At Salem she gets to be part of a strong, successful program. She would have been Varsity at ALA but it would have meant nothing. At Salem, she made JV as a 9th grader- only one of 3 9th graders, and it was a big deal! So it was definitely the right move soccer-wise.

2. She has LOTS of educational opportunities at Salem she wouldn't get at ALA, to take classes in the major she is interested in. And we were able to work it out so she could take Spanish at the high school, which was basically a miracle! So she can still finish and take AP Spanish like she would have at ALA.

3. The rest of the reasons we are yet to see. But she has been able to keep in touch with her friends from ALA pretty well, and if we have to work harder as a family to be unified at 2 different schools, so be it.

Anyway, this picture I love. She made some GREAT friends on the JV team! Lots of Sophomores, so she doesn't get to see them as much since the season ended--they are at the high school and she's at the Jr. High. But she's stoked to play with them again and go to school with them next year!

This is Whitney and Bella laughing at/with McKell after she had a wide open shot and missed it. The 3 of them and Aby Lyman (Her club teammate Megan's sister!) were the defensive starters. The sophomores were all SO nice to her and made her feel welcome! I told her she needs to follow their example next year!

Here's Whit the ONE time she played for the freshman team just for fun. She got to be #4!

Here she is playing in the rain at Maple Mountain (far left) and in Skyhawk Stadium.

Beautiful view at Salem Hills!

Whitney also got her first real job that season, reffing for Salem Rec! She did great but was disappointed in the low pay haha.

Ashelyn, Rylee and Whitney all made the JV teams--but Rylee plays for Maple Mountain! So they got to play each other twice. Here they are after the game at MM.

And here they are playing against each other at Salem on the grass field (The Swamp!) L- Whit and Ry on the left. R- Whitney stopping Rylee's attack! No way she was going to let her get past!! Also you can see the feet of several of their 8th grade teammates who came to watch. :)

Side note- silly Emma and Whitney stealing my phone during one of Owen's games.

Whitney at the Springville game-- an epic day!! Varsity played first, and I was on my way when Eric called to say that Whitney got put into the Varsity game!! I was like "what??" and drove faster! I got to see her play the last few minutes, plus overtime. They ended up losing but it wasn't her fault. She told us after that the head coach came up to her and was like "Whitney get warmed up, you're going in" and she was like "me??" and all her teammates were like Whoa Whitney!! It was so sweet, they were genuinely happy for her. Ashelyn texted her mom who told Eric. (her mom- Angela- and Eric were the diehard soccer parents of the team lol. They got to hang out at games a lot!) It was SO exciting and unexpected, and she did well!

These pictures are from the JV game after- she played all of that game too! L- she's in the middle. R- Ashelyn, Bella, Maddie, and Whitney.

They ended up losing 2-1, and it was a CRAZY last couple of minutes! They game ended with Salem getting a corner kick with 5 seconds left. It popped out and landed in midfield- Whitney and a crazy rough Springville girl both sprinted for it, Whitney got the ball first and started to make a move, when the other girl who had been sprinting for the ball TOOK HER OUT at full speed. We were all instantly on our feet yelling and the ref blew the whistle to end the game...and gave the girl a red card! It was crazy!! Luckily Whitney was okay. But she wasn't even mad that they lost, because she got to play Varsity!!!! She was floating for hours after, like had the windows down blasting music and singing at the top of her lungs haha. It was just cool because she worked SO hard all summer, doing the workouts on her own when they had the moratorium and when she was at FSY and I ran sprints with her at Lake Powell on the boat ramp! She started at the very bottom, working out with the Freshmen, worked her way up to JV by the time of tryouts, and finally ended up getting some Varsity playing time!

One more pic of Whitney taking the ball from Rylee haha, and playing at Copper Hills.

After a game- livin' the dream!!

Aaaannnd here's the good pictures taken by a photographer mom!!

After that Springville game, Whitney got to dress for Varsity for the last game of the season, against Maple Mountain, and for the playoff game. She played a few minutes in each and was stoked! Here she is playing Left Back, and doing a throw-in, in a Varsity home game!

Standing with Bella, Brinley, and the rest of the Varsity team during the national anthem.

During team introductions for Varsity.

Team cheer for Varsity, and by the bench after warmup.

With her Shooters Teammates who came out to support! Layla, Whit, Ruby, Avary, Ash, Rylee, Megan and Olivia.

SHHS JV team after their last game! Addie, Bella, Aby, Julia, Brooklyn, Brinley, Ashlyn, Hailey, Whitney and Allyson. Front- Brinley, Suzie, Rinley, Brenna, McKell, Ellie, Victoria, and Maddie. 18 girls, 1 Junior, 13 Sophomores, and 5 Freshmen (2 were technically on the Freshman team but got some JV playing time).

They all wrote Brooklyn's number on their legs, because she was moving to Italy the next week with her family!

Whitney's biggest fans!!!

The whole team, Varsity, JV and Freshmen!

The team did lunches every Wednesday, and I coordinated the rides for the 9th graders from the Jr High over to the house where the lunches were. So I got to know the girls a little, it was fun. It was good for Whitney too, because she didn't practice with them or anything, so she didn't get to know the other 9th graders very well.