WESTBOROUGH — The Westborough Rangers girls soccer team is preparing for the upcoming season with an air of excitement and a focus on team culture.
After starting the season 1-4 last year, Westborough rallied behind first-year Head Coach Scott Moroney to finish the regular season 8-6-2 and advance to the MIAA Division 2 playoffs as the No. 11 seed. The Rangers eventually fell — losing a tight contest to Mansfield in the Round of 16 — and graduated 10 seniors.
Since that point, the team has been hard at work preparing and organizing for the season ahead.
“We want to make this season last as long as possible,” said Molly Courchesne, one of the team’s three senior captains. Courchesne has committed to play soccer at the University of South Carolina Aiken next fall.
The team’s captains — Regan Sullivan, Addi Potenti and Courchesne — have “taken charge,” said Moroney, and started focusing on improving the program immediately after last year’s banquet. As part of that effort, the captains and several other Rangers ran the Westborough Soccer Development Program in the offseason, volunteering to lead free clinics for younger athletes in the area.
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After “putting the ‘we’ in Westborough” last year, the Rangers are adding a new motto this season: “compete, confidence, and commitment.” The slogan, said Moroney, is designed to establish expectations and keep players accountable over the course of the year. If the athletes give full effort while competing in practices and games, have confidence in themselves and one another, and remain committed to teammates, the Rangers should find success, he said.
“Some of our expectations are to have a good team culture, like we’ve had every year. It’s definitely special to [us seniors] this year since it’s our final run. We’re hoping to get some wins, and we’re hoping that everyone is good teammates to each other,” Potenti told the Community Advocate.
“We’re super excited for this season. It’s [the seniors’] last year, so we’re excited to hopefully get some wins. We’ve grown really close with our teammates — we’ve been playing with the same group of girls for a while now — so we’re excited to grow together and get some good wins this season,” added Sullivan.
The team opened its season on Sep. 3 against soccer powerhouse Acton-Boxborough. Coming off his first full year with the program, Moroney praised the leadership of his captains and said he was excited about the opportunity to keep moving the program forward.
“They’re setting standards, being mentors, and being available to people … I’m really confident and feeling like we’ll go into the season and be competitive again … I think the captains have also grown as leaders themselves. They each bring something a little bit different,” he said.