Pronghorns women's soccer team sticks together during challenging season
Little has gone right for the Gillette College women’s soccer team this year. The Pronghorns have won two games in their first season back since sports were cut in 2020. One of those two games was actually a loss that Casper College later had to forfeit due to playing ineligible players. The other was a 2-1 win over Trinidad State College team that has one win on the season.
Little has gone right for the Gillette College women’s soccer team this year.
The Pronghorns have won two games in their first season back since sports were cut in 2020. One of those two games was actually a loss that Casper College later had to forfeit due to playing ineligible players. The other was a 2-1 win over Trinidad State College team that has one win on the season.
Gillette hasn’t won at home, and Saturday’s game against Casper College is the team’s last chance to do so. It will take a Herculean effort considering Casper College is 12-2-1 with an 8-0-1 in-conference record.
But on the practice fields in the days before their final game of the season, spirits are high. Little has gone right except for one thing — the team’s bond.
“Every day I walk into the locker room, I know there is going to be laughing,” coach Anthony Longo said. “They’re going to enjoy each other, they’re going to have that feeling that they’re together and they like being around each other.”
Sophomores Camryn Harris, Kylie Strange, Ellie Ketterling and Cesia Swain were teammates together at Casper College last year. Their time there left a lot to be desired with a lack of team unity. It didn’t feel like a family, which is a word they often use to describe the locker room at Gillette College.
The locker room at Gillette College is a unit. It has helped them overcome difficult times as a group. It’s why that even with all the tough losses, the Pronghorns play for each other.
“There are a few (friend) groups but we all come together,” Swain said. “But we can all come together as a family, or as team.”
Before home games, the team would spend the night together playing hydration games where they used water to play typical party games. It both brought them together and kept them hydrated before their game the next day.
A win on Saturday would mean a lot for the team, especially the group of transfers from Casper College. But there are other goals for the team to hit. Above all, the team just wants to play a complete game.
“We’ve had some good games or some good first halves of some games, but a full game would be amazing,” freshman defenseman Emma Nelson said.
Even if it hasn’t directly translated to wins, everyone on the team has seen improvement. Above all, this season is about getting better. Even if it’s been a little rocky, the Pronghorns have shown improvement that encourages Longo for the future of the program.
Building was the key word used by the team to describe the season. No matter the outcome on Saturday or the team’s final record, the freshman will be invigorated heading into next year knowing the step forward they took, while the sophomores can explore the four-year university soccer world knowing they helped build the soccer team.
“It was a lot of fun to see the progress within the girls,” freshman defenseman Camree Tribe said, “from the start of the season to the end of the season. A lot of people got to the next level.”
The first few games of the season were rough, but the games were closer toward the end of the year. In some of the team’s games toward the end of the season, the Pronghorns would outshoot and generally outplay an opponent but just couldn’t get over the hump to win.
Longo said that the team always came ready to work and get better. No matter what was happening during the season, the Pronghorns were putting in the work.
Saturday will be the last time that some of these players will hit the field together. Even if during the offseason the team doesn’t spend as much time together, the Pronghorns plan on continuing to have group events. They’ll still have their morning trips to Main Bagel, movie nights in the Tanner Village apartment-style dorms and the workouts together.
When next year rolls around, the members of this year’s team that stay will have an understanding of each other, the college level and how their teammates play. Longo, who wasn’t coaching in the year before he took over at Gillette College, will have a much easier time to recruit with the extra time he now has. And now, the team knows how to deal with adversity and stay together.
And with all of that, the Pronghorns will keep building.
Article written by David Rodish, News Record Sports Editor