Varsity Girls Soccer placed third in region in the 2016 season with an overall record of 11-2-2 and a conference record of 9-1-1. Players returning for their senior year include Sarah Duncan, Kamree Jones, Danielle Orr, Bella Pirami, Sarah Reddish, and Baylie Saunders. Both Duncan and Orr are captains on the varsity team alongside Addy Anderson, Bingham junior.

The Lady Miners started preparing for their season in May, even before tryouts. In June, the team traveled to Dixie State University in southern Utah to participate in a training camp and tournament with other high school soccer teams.

The 36 athletes that make up the Bingham Girls Soccer team spend a lot of time together and work together smoothly as a team. The team practices on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays and has a team dinner every week. Friday’s practice consists of conditioning and a fitness test that determines whether or not they will play in the next game.

In an Instagram post about Bingham Girls Soccer on August 29, Varsity Captain Anderson said, “Bingham soccer is full of talented, smart, and thoughtful people who would do anything to support each other on and off the field. I’m so grateful I have 35 best friends to lift me up and push me harder than I thought imaginable.” Duncan agrees with Anderson and said, “I think this year especially we’ve really been able to bond together. We’re all friends on and off the field. It’s a cool bond we all have.”

At the start of the season, the Lady Miners have an overall record of 4-7-0 and a conference record of 1-6-0. Their record does not equal their success last season. This is largely due to the move from 5A to 6A and the challenging opponents they are up against. Bingham Girls Soccer also lost many valuable senior players when they graduated in June of 2017.

However, Duncan said, “We have a ton of really good freshman this year. They’re definitely stepping up and filling in more than we lost.”

The Lady Miners are committed to working harder. The players are constantly setting goals to improve their play. Assistant Coach Ashley Wright said, “We take the positives and negatives from each game and come up with drills for practice to help us focus on specific areas to better our game and be ready for our next opponent.”

Even with the challenge of moving from 5A to 6A, Bingham Girls Soccer still has hopes for improvement this season. The move has challenged the players and helped them improve as a team. Duncan said, “It’s kind of a game changer when you’re playing harder teams. It makes me want to go back and play our biggest rival last year, Brighton High School because I feel like we could wreck them now. We’ve gotten so much better even if it doesn’t show in our record.”

All of us here at Bingham wish the Lady Miners the best as they finish out the 2017 season.