Vallarta Blog

By Robert Perea

For most visitors, a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico means days on the beach, and nights club-hopping.

Not so for the Carson High School boys and girls soccer teams. For them, it was a low stress way to prepare for the demanding Sierra League season.

Both teams went 3-0 in a tournament hosted by Colegio Americano, with the boys team winning the championship and the girls losing the final match, both on penalty kicks, after a torrential downpour forced the cancellation of the championship matches.

As the Sierra League favorites, the trip gave the Senator girls team a chance to work out some kinks against good competition in a relaxed atmosphere.

“It was more of a friendly thing for us,” said coach Randy Roser. “It helped us quite a bit. We didn’t feel pressure like we would playing league games.”

Roser said the tournament format allowed the teams to work on things that needed improvement.

“When you play in tournaments, what you see you’re weak on, you can work on in the next game,” he said.

Off the field, the teams took a three-hour cruise around the port on their second night of the trip, and the third night they attended a pool party and banquet.

“It was a great experience,” said Roser. “Most of the kids learned more Spanish than in four years of school.”

International partnership

The trip was part of a partnership

between the Carson City School District and the Colegio Americano. Next year the Colegio Americano will send a team to Carson City, while Carson will return the trip again in 2009, and they will rotate after that.

“From our perspective, our hope is if you play soccer at Carson, at least once you will play internationally in Puerto Vallarta,” said Roser.

Unfortunately, the Senator girls didn’t get much down time after returning from the trip on Sept. 13. They opened Sierra League play two days later with a 3-1 loss to South Tahoe.

Carson rebounded to beat North Tahoe, Wooster and Hug, and despite the loss to the Lakers, look ready to stand up to their role as Sierra League favorites.

The Senators have won the Sierra League in three of the last four years, and feature a deep and talented, yet still young, squad.

“We’re very strong,” Roser said. “We have 20 players and we’re 20 deep. Everyone is a pretty good player. They’re very fast, and we move the ball well.”

Returning talent

The Senators return six seniors — Kristin Rush, Becca Kane, Belle Fleming, Brandy Cantley, Amanda Osborne and Kayla Sanchez — who have been on the varsity team for three years. They’re joined by four juniors and 10 sophomores, three of whom are returning varsity players.

The goalkeeper is sophomore Jennifer Johnson, who Roser said is “getting better every match.”

The juniors returning from last season are Alli Collier, Helaine Berris, Lauren Schulz and Brandi Vega, who is getting recruiting attention from everyone on the west coast, including UCLA, Washington State and San Francisco.

Johnson is one of three returning sophomores, along with Taylor Musselman and Brenda Luquin.

“These girls are strong and they know how to win, the seniors especially,” said Roser. “We’re fast everywhere, back, midfield and front, and so far, I don’t see any team that will be able to pass on us a lot.”

With that kind of speed all over the field, Roser said the key to success for the Senators will be to play patiently, since opposing teams will likely try to neutralize that speed.

“If we can just keep our game simple, with our skills on the ball we don’t have to work hard,” Roser said. “Just let the ball do the work and do what we do. Be patient, and make better decisions.”

Although they’ve won the league title three of the last four years, Roser said that’s not the Senators’ goal.

“The goal is always to make the playoffs,” he said. “The first time around the league is a lot of training — working on the basics and on certain tactics and getting them ingrained in the players.

“The second time around is to make sure we get into zone, and to make sure the technical and tactical things are peaking,” Roser added. “Winning will take care of itself if we train properly.”