Coyote soccer watches USA defeat Chile
Courtesy of Cameron Hill Members of the Madera Coyote girls soccer program attends the USA Women’s National team soccer match against Chile in San Jose last week.
The Madera Coyotes girls soccer team and staff enjoyed a recent trip to San Jose where they saw the USA women’s national team defeat Chile in a friendly at Avaya Stadium.
Not only was it a means to bond as a program, but also to learn from the highest level of competitive soccer.
“It was a good experience for the girls. Most of them have never been to a game like that and I’ve never been to a women’s national team match. I went to a men’s match last year,” Madera head coach Cameron Hill said. “But it was a good, fun experience. A lot of team bonding.”
Hill, a few members of his staff and the players took cars up to the event in San Jose. Hill described the ride over as fun with a lot of chatter amongst the girls.
“We left school at 2 p.m. and got there a little after 4 p.m.,” Hill said. “We ate outside the stadium and after that we went to the game, we were hanging out in front of the stadium. We were taking pictures and the girls had fun and walked around. A couple girls bought jerseys and then the game started at 7 p.m.”
The experience and lessons learned from watching the game can be utilized for the season ahead, Hill said.
“I think they see the intensity and the view we had helped us see the positioning of players and things. I was telling my back-line players, because we want to build out of the back, about how to get spacing and what those players were doing differently than what we do,” Hill said. “I think a lot of them could kind of see what it should look like on the field because the view helped us see the movement of the players really well.”
Hill first put out the notice over the summer and only asked for the girls willing to come to only pay for their ticket. Also, it wasn’t just varsity players — it was the entire program, from the freshman to the seniors.
For the coaches, the experience also proved beneficial for them. Both bonding with players, but also gaining some insight to help improve the team.
“It’s some of the stuff that we’ve been doing, but it’s just a new to way to see it for the players and a way for us to see it to teach it,” Hill said. “We can implement their kind of style of play as well.”
