Incoming Freshmen and New Athletes
How to Prepare for Your First High School Season
1) Spring
In the spring, unfortunately you are not allowed to join us yet for our HS Spring Trainings as 8th graders. They best thing you can do though is to play! Whether it is rec soccer or competitive club soccer. The more touches, experience and physical activity you can do the better prepared you will feel.
2) Summer
a) RUN RUN RUN - A big part of transitioning into high school soccer is your ability to run. Your speed, agility and endurance all play a vital role in your ability to compete at the high school level. These are also 3 things that EVERY athlete must continue to work on. During tryouts, there will be fitness testing. We will for sure test you on how fast you can run 1 mile. Top high school athletes can run 1 mile around 6 minutes 30 seconds or faster. As a program, our goal is to have everyone able to complete the mile around 7 minutes and for sure be able to complete the mile under 8 minutes. For many athletes who are not active year round, this can be quite the challenge. So try your best to get out and get used to running. Soccer is one of the most physically demanding sports and running is a huge part of that if you want to keep up and stay on the field.
b) Optional Summer Training Sessions - Our varsity captains will be holding optional training sessions for EVERYONE to participate. This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to the girls in the program as well as get experience and touches on the ball. These sessions will be TWICE a week the first 2 weeks of July and primarily designed to play. DATES/TIMES are still TBD but we will update this page once they are confirmed. FILL OUT THE CONTACT FORM BELOW SO WE CAN ADD YOU TO THE UPDATES.
c) Get your SPORTS PHYSICAL COMPLETED EARLY! Set up an appointment with your doctor to complete your sports physical. Traditionally, freshman are always scrambling and caught off guard by this requirement. I cannot let you on the field to participate in August without the sports physical. This is required for ALL NEW PARTICIPANTS and every 2 years, so Juniors often have to repeat this as well.
d) REGISTER! Don't forget to register at: https://glencoehs.8to18.com/accounts/login
e) Plan ahead for August. Many freshmen overlook the fact that our preseason camps/trainings start the first week of August and tryouts are mid-August. While I can't require you to attend all the preseason sessions, it is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to help prepare you for successful tryouts and season. See the TRYOUTS tab for more information and the Calendar to help prepare.
f) On Instagram? - follow us @glencoegirlssoccer for updates, content and announcements.
3) August - Preseason
Our preseason preparations start August 5th. These sessions are required to be primarily fitness based as a way to prepare the athletes bodies for a grueling season. OSAA has required this as an act of safety. Statistically, athletes whom are properly prepared physically for the demands of the high school season are less likely to suffer injuries throughout the season. These sessions then will grow in difficulty and demand, in order to prepare for tryout fitness testing and the season ahead. These two weeks are FREE for all athletes and DO NOT guarantee making a team.
Tryouts are always a number game. If we can only field 2 full teams, roughly 15-20 per team, then we will only have two teams. To make 3 teams, we need roughly 50-60 athletes to tryout. The number of cuts we have to make then changes each year and is highly dependent on how many tryout out. The earlier everyone registers, the earlier we have an idea of what this scenario will look like and I will always try to be open and transparent about this process.