Garfield girls soccer is on the rise. Last year, the team went 7 – 7, winning one more game than they had in the previous three years combined.

The team has a strong base of nine seniors this year, including captains Jamie Williams and Jill Benson who will hold together the defense, as well as freshmen Marjorie Chelius and Rachel Rogers, who will play key roles in the team’s offense.

“We have a lot of good players,” said junior defender Molly Bresslour. “We work well together.”

According to five-year coach Timothy Self, the two most important factors in this year’s success as a team will be unity and fitness. His main goal is to improve fitness and skill on a weekly basis.

Williams knows that strong leadership from the upperclassmen will overcome unity problems. “We all get along really well,” she said. “We have a great chemistry… have good role models and good leaders.”

Self stresses that trust will help the team succeed, and that success can be measure through the games, rather than the record. He really looks to all of the returning players to embrace their roles and help the younger players thrive.

The team looks forward to playing their rival schools, which are, as Williams put it, almost everyone. They particularly want to beat Roosevelt, Eastlake, and Inglemoor, who are all usual contenders for the conference title.

According to Bresslour, “It’s going to take a lot of effort from each player, everyone wanting to be there, staying positive and supportive of each other.”

It will take hard work from every player on the team, but after their first game, the Bulldogs are 1 – 0 in league play. They continue their season on Tuesday, September 16 against Eastlake, and hope to come up with a big win. With high spirits, the team can see for the first time in years a strong possibility in winning a berth in the KingCo 4A conference finals.