You know it's early in the season when second year Centennial women's soccer head coach Mary D'Amato is busy counting votes at the start of practice. Votes, for team captains.
D'Amato hasn't even made final cuts to the team yet with girls from the cross country team just getting into the squad in the last week. But while it may be early, for this year's Golden Hawks team, scoring has been all too easy.
"(Last year) we were more of a blue collar team," D'Amato said. "The girls are much more dynamic this year." In just two games Centennial has scored nine goal and incredibly every goal was scored by a different girl.
Senior midfielder Jillian Brooks scored one of those goal but is also credited with four assists. But she's not ready to talk too highly of her game. "I don't know how to talk about myself!" she said Thursday.
So we'll do it for her. She's a four year varsity player who "controls the pace of the game" and distributes balls for the rest of her teammates. "She knows exactly what to do with the ball," said D'Amato. "She's one of the reasons we've scored so many goals."
That knack for passing off to her teammates is something she's more than happy to do. "It's definitely fun seeing the reaction when you help someone score," Brooks said.
While it's early in the season, with her leadership and experience, she and coach D'Amato think this could be a special season. "I believe we can go really far," Brooks said. "I don't want to jinx us but we have a good solid team this year."
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