That was the message Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé girls soccer coach Matt Dusenberry gave to the Crimson Bears girls as they took to the Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park pitch on Friday and senior-night Saturday against the Railbelt Conference-leading Wasilla Warriors.
Saturday was an emotional contest as 13 high school players would have their last opportunity to play in front of friends and family. Before the game, seniors Adelyn Buss, Priscilla Lam, Ella Orsborn, Natalie Travis, Milina Mazon, Lola Hines, Parker Boman, Dori Germain, Lena Field, Alison Tingey, Mary Canapary, Alyssa Lawhorne and Daniela Lamas were honored with their friends and country wise email marketing listfamily by having teammates share a short speech and present them with gifts.
“Recognizing the moment, we were able to get 24 players
into the game today and every one of them put in valuable minutes for the team,” Dusenberry said. “Smiles, laughter and even tears occurred in the bench area as the game went on, making for a memorable end to the season.”
JDHS did not find the opponent’s net in the game, but battled to the end with each senior being cheered. Some of the loudest encouragement came from classmates and teammates of Lamas when she played her first varsity minutes fax database and continued through the final seconds as seniors exited the pitch.
“It meant a lot being my senior year,” Orsborn said. “Playing for JD was nice, it was fun.”
Travis earned the team’s Hard Hat Award for the game.
“Natalie has been a leader by example all year for us, playing hard on the field,” Dusenberry said. “But off the field doing things like: making sure we recognize people’s birthdays, reminding us about the schedule, game-day uniform reminders and even deciding our local sports writer needed a card and gift at our senior night!”