Many people have different experiences and feelings about joining the soccer team at AJMS, including myself. Here, soccer players share their experiences and feelings about joining the team.

Eighth grader Brandon Juarez explained that the most challenging part was trying to pass the ball. He said, “Passing the ball was the most challenging part of tryouts for me because I mainly didn’t know how everybody played so I didn’t know where to pass it where they could receive the ball.” We can see that Brandon’s experience  when starting the soccer team was difficult at first.

Starting goalkeeper Edward Rosales said, “The most challenging thing about trying out for the team was trying for a spot at goalkeeper. I would say that it was very challenging for me because it was my first time actually trying to be a full time goalkeeper instead of just playing goalkeeper for twenty minutes then switching with someone else.”         

Edward also added, “One last reason it was complicated was that most of the players had really strong legs for shooting. Some of them were Brandon Juarez, Antonio Camarillo, Jessi Salas, Jose Contreras, and Cristian Larios. That’s what was most challenging for me trying out only for the AJMS soccer team but as a goalkeeper as well.”  We can see that Edward’s experience was challenging at first too.

Cristian Larios said, “Getting my teammates to listen to me on defense when I either wanted to pass the ball or switch up the play [was challenging]. Another frustrating thing for me is when all the sixth and seventh graders would just bunch up together and just chase the ball around when they should’ve stood still and passed the ball with each other instead of it getting taken from them like it was nothing and getting scored on.” Cristian’s experience is that it is frustrating when practicing with younger peers and challenging when no one listens.

Finally, Antonio Camarillo said, “The offense had no idea what to do with the ball since they had no chemistry and I would take the ball from them most of the time on defense. I also was too fast for them on loose balls so I liked trying out and I think I really did stand out on defense during tryouts.”  Antonio’s experience was better, he’s able to take the ball away from the offense.

This is what eighth grade players on the soccer team feel and experience about the soccer team when they first started.