By: Caitie Staff [Staff Writer]
Soccer season has just started for Marion, and the high school team has already jumped right into competition. Today, Wednesday, April 4, Marion will be participating in a “nine-ten” (freshman & sophomore game) at Linn-Mar. It’s starts at 4:15, but the players will be getting there earlier than most.
Freshman, Melaina O’Brien is looking forward to the game tonight. The team will board their bus at 3:10, which doesn’t leave too much time to prepare, but Melaina is ready.
She’s a 14 year old who has been playing soccer since 4th grade. She works hard to fulfill her dreams. “I want to play soccer through my whole high school and, hopefully, college,” she confided shyly and smoothed out her long honey-colored hair.
Hard work is a requirement for the Marion JV and Varsity teams, but sometimes they get a break from practices. “This week we only have one, because of Good Friday and the three games we’ve had. We usually have practices everyday, except weekends.” When asked about if practices are a challenge, she replied, “Yeah, they can be. We do a lot of running at the beginning and conditioning after. Mostly abs and sprinting,” she proudly described the routine.
Melaina exercises outside of practices as well, but not regularly. “Sometimes I’ll go down to the fitness center and work there,” she said. She brings along her friends Emily Meeks and Gabrielle Fiala to add fun to the hard work.
Practices end at 5:30, leaving Melaina enough free time to get her homework done. “I still have enough time in the day,” She said. There’s no interference in scheduling either, because soccer means a lot to Melaina and she makes time for it like the rest of the team.
The game tonight might be tough, but Melaina feels confident that the team is prepared. “We’ve heard from Varsity that we’re undefeated on their turf, but I think we’ll do pretty well and we’re ready to play.”
She wants everyone to be there to witness the Marion victories. “I hope to see people [there], because we have a lot of home games. And I hope to see people come cheer us on!”
