Girls’ soccer

The girls’ soccer team plays their rival team, the Hollidaysburg Girls Golden Tigers, today. Their first game playing against the team is Sept. 11 after school.

“If we communicate more and move around more, we should a lot farther than last year’s [team],” tenth grader Cassie Kyle, target forward said. “Ever since I remember, Hollidaysburg and Altoona have been rivals since the schools are so close to each other. We’ve worked too hard to not win.”

Cassie started playing soccer when she was four because she had so much energy and soccer was a good sport to put her energy to use.  She thinks the Hollidaysburg team does not always have good sportsmanship and even plays club soccer with one of the girls on the rival team.

“At training we work on things we have room to improve on like passing to feet and finishing,” Kyle said.

Boys’ soccer

Tenth grade, Lucas Vrabel, right defender, has been playing soccer since he was five years old.  He has always been competitive so soccer was the right sport for him. The boys’ soccer team played their rival, also Hollidaysburg, last Thursday.  Altoona won with an ending score of 3-2.

“We just need to practice more and stay calm and composed when we are on the field,” Vrabel said.

The team eats a spaghetti dinner together before each game.  They then ride to the field together to stretch and warm up.

When asked about the team’s relationship with their rival, Lucas said, “I personally know a couple, but some of the players on our team play on a traveling team with few of the Hollidaysburg players.  We play them every year and we all want bragging rights so we can say we beat them and are the better team.”

The teams rivalry started before Lucas enrolled at the Altoona Area School District in seventh grade.