Girls’ soccer: Awards keep rolling in for L.B. Wilson
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[Updated with quotes]
Long Beach Wilson is the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of American/ADIDAS rankings ‘winter’ national champion. This is the second ‘mythical’ national title for the the Bruins this season, they were named StudentSports.Soccer.Rivals national champs last month.
The Bruins (30-1-4) were an experienced squad that was led by a group of seven seniors who have accepted scholarships -- among them San Diego-bound Danielle Russell, one of the best defenders in the Southland.
Guided by Coach Jason Kirkwood, Wilson captured a share of the Southern Section Division I title and also won the inaugural Southern California Regional championship.
‘This was a once-in-a-lifetime season,’ Kirkwood said. ‘It was the right combination of talent. Defensively we were strong, and offensively we had so many weapons that it was hard to just try to take one out.’
After three seasons in which the program kept improving, but fell short of breaking through, Wilson finally accomplished some big things this year. And that, for Kirkwood, was the most rewarding aspect.
‘It’s a nice accumulation of four years. The seniors really have gone through and taken their lumps,’ he said.
As for repeating next season, Kirkwood said winning national titles are never a goal at the start of the season. ‘You don’t have any control over that,’ he said. ‘Our goals at Wilson will be to win the Moore League and Southern Section. It will be a huge challange to defend all the titles we’ve won.’
San Clemente (24-3-8), which shared the Division I title with Wilson, was the only other team from Southland to finish in the top 10 rankings. The Tritans were No. 8.
San Clemente is a team to watch out for next season as most of its key players this season were sophomores and juniors.
-- Jaime Cardenas