“The goal is… before they get to practice or right before practice, they’re writing down a quick affirmation in their notebook,” Gall said. “It starts with ‘I am a great…’ and then they can insert pitcher, catcher, infielder, outfielder, teammate, anything, and then they add in a couple of reasons why.”
A former pitcher at Maryland, Gall remembers how important words of encouragement were to her success at the collegiate level. In her first season coaching the reigning state champions, Gall has introduced several such rituals, hoping they will serve as confidence boosters for her players.
At some practices, Gall writes the name of each player on individual sheets of paper and hands them to her players to pocket until the end of practice. When practice is over, each player approaches the teammate whose name they were given and personally delivers positive encouragement about how they practiced that day.
“You notice things that you do well,” senior captain Falyn Quick said. “But it’s nice to know that someone is seeing that, too, and affirming you on it and telling you great job and good work.”
Between a week-long spring break and another week of rainouts, the Hornets are only two games into their season. But Gall’s team — who moved to the 2A classification this past offseason — knocked off rival Sherwood, ranked No. 7, on Saturday, 10-2.
After the win, the team huddled around Gall, who asked for five players to volunteer and compliment a teammate in front of the rest of the team. To Gall’s delight, a chorus of more than five voices immediately jumped at the opportunity.
“They enjoy that,” Gall said. “It helps keep our tone positive and also just reinforces the things that we’re doing across the board as a team.”
Freedom (South Riding) girls’ soccer struggled to field a consistent starting lineup last season as injuries piled up.
The Eagles found success despite missing six to eight players during their district slate, finishing the year with a 14-3-1 record. But the injury woes ultimately prevented the team from building chemistry, and the Eagles ended their season in the regional semifinals.
With 10 returning seniors and a squad that’s no longer plagued by injury, the Eagles have raced out to a 5-0 record, a start that includes a narrow 1-0 win over Champe in their season opener and a 5-1 victory against district foe Patriot on April 2.
“They came into the season at the best place that they’ve been in three years in terms of their cohesiveness, their understanding of each other on the field, their friendships off the field,” Coach Chris Campbell said. “All of that usually leads to good things.”
Penn State commit Addison Hess has played a large role in an Eagles offense that has scored 24 goals. A first team All-Met selection last year, Hess has already notched 10 goals and four assists in four games. She scored 22 goals and added nine assists last spring.
Hess is one of six seniors that have played on Freedom’s varsity team since her freshman year, making up the foundation of an experienced group.
“[Hess] is just an intense attacking player,” Campbell said. “She has improved so much over the last four years, kind of expanded her game from being just a target player to being somebody who can play with her back to the goal, can play facing the goal.”
Goalkeeper Avery Strohecker joined the team during her sophomore year and is another of the Eagles’ 10 total seniors. The Seton Hall signee anchors Freedom’s sturdy defense; she allowed less than one goal per game in 15 contests last season and has conceded just once this year.
The Eagles face district rival Battlefield, last year’s VHSL Class 6 finalists, on Friday. After a strong start to the season, Freedom knows it will face even larger challenges ahead.
“We try to do our best to make sure that we’re looking at the big picture, [but] certainly your heart beats a little bit faster when you get into those key district games,” Campbell said.