The Kelly Walsh Girls Soccer Team Captures Their First State Title Since 2005

CASPER, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - It was a long road for the Kelly Walsh girls soccer team, but the journey led them to their third ever state championship.

After starting off with a record of 1-4, the team began to find their stride and only got better with each game. Head coach Jerry Realing said, “I think by the end of the year when we started hitting May and we started hitting the culminating events, I thought we started gelling as a team. And again, it’s no one person in particular it was everybody because, you know, we’ve talked about it, you know we’re all together greater than any one of us is going to be by ourselves and they bought into that concept, and that’s what got us through.”

In the first four games, the team let up 11 goals to opponents, and they knew they had to work on a couple of things. One of those things that the team worked on in particular was communication.

Midfielder Abiugail Miller said, “Carly and I the other center back, we went through a lot of change obviously and we really worked on our communication. And it really helped with Addy, really communication she stepped up this year communicating with us and it just really helped us.”

Addy Harris, the goalkeeper, definitely stepped up. After those 11 goals, she and the defense only let up 7 goals for the last 16 games of their season. Of those 16 games, 10 of those were shutouts.

Harris emphasized how important communication was saying, “It’s very important because if I don’t talk to them, obviously people can go right past and get a goal. So, just them trusting me and like actually listening to what I’m telling them to do helps a lot, and then it just helps set people in the right position so we have the best chance to not get scored on.”

Their offense also picked it up at the same time, as they found their rhythm and scored in every single game after their rough start. Each game only boosted their confidence, and midfielder Peyton Hill believed that it was the last regular season game that they truly found their form.

She said, “Yeah, I think it would be when we played Rock Springs in the last... Like right before state and regionals. We just came together and really started to figure each other out which was a big help when we went into regionals and state.”

Hill went on to score the go ahead goal in their state title game, as they took down Jackson, who beat them in the regional finals, 2-0. It was their first state title win in 18 years, and with 13 returning players from this team, number four is on their minds.

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