ATC girls soccer off to best start in program’s history
ATC, off to best start in program’s history, works on developing its youngest, most inexperienced players
Eddy Segura is passionate about soccer. But he also knows how to be patient. The quest to build a successful girls soccer program at Academy for Technology and the Classics is a daunting one. Segura, the fifth-year head coach who hails from Costa Rica, needed just one look on his first day with the Phoenix to know he had a lot of work ahead.
“I thought I was going to coach, but I ended up teaching more,” Segura said. “If you don’t know how to kick the ball, you’re not going to coach anyway. You need to teach. Try to develop those skills as much as you can.”
Slowly, but surely, Segura started to build a foundation of fundamentals so that he could erect the walls of skill, teamwork and — most of all — coaching.
The payoff for his patience might be here, finally.
ATC is off to a 3-0 start — the best in the seven-year history of the program. If Segura and the Phoenix needed an indication of where they are in their development, they got it Monday in the form of a 3-0 win over the Taos junior varsity at Eco Park. Segura said that while the schedule said ATC was facing the Taos JV, he saw quite a few players who were on
the varsity. How could he tell? “I saw these girls and they were all bigger than my girls,” Segura said.
The Lady Tigers’ size even had some of the veterans on the Phoenix wondering what was going to happen.
“We thought we were going to be coming home early,” sophomore Xitlally Estrada-Perez said with a laugh. “I thought we would get mercy-ruled.
I really did.”
Instead, ATC ended up winning a shutout and got a goal each from Estrada-Perez and twins Amberly and Kimberly Garcia. Those three, along with sisters Maggie and Lily Rittmeyer, make up the bulk of the experienced part of the program. They have played club soccer and come in with solid skills and understanding of the game. They are paired, though, with players who are still learning the game — to the point that some of the Phoenix had never played the sport until showing up for practice in August.
That is where the disconnect between coaching and teaching comes into play. Segura recognizes that he has to teach the inexperienced players about the game while also trying to get them up to speed with how to play within a competitive environment. It’s a delicate balance between slowing down while speeding up.
Segura pointed to sophomore Amea Lombardo as an example. She had never played the sport until this year, so Segura had to teach her how to dribble a pass, settle the ball on a pass, then pass it to a teammate.
“I try to focus on them to try to do it,” Segura said. “Some of these girls, they are not going to send me the ball, but they get to learn how to really play the game. Some of them have really improved a lot, like [Lombardo].”
Maggie Rittmeyer, a sophomore striker, said there are fewer inexperienced players this year, which minimized the slowdown portion of preseason practice. This is despite having a roster that has 17 players who are sophomores or younger.
“Before, we were having to take that big step back and learn from the
beginning,” Maggie Rittmeyer said. “This year, we were taking a couple of steps back, but we’re moving forward from there since the summer.”
If there was a fundamental change heading into this season, it was the monthlong summer workout session — a first for the program — that saw about 12 players regularly attend. While Segura spent the time visiting family, the Rittmeyers’ father oversaw the session that appears to have paid off so far.
“From our summer practices,
we started working on our passing, so that when we got [to
practice] we didn’t have to spend so much time on it and get back into what we really wanted to do.”
Segura is starting to do more coaching than teaching, and the results are showing on the field. ATC has yet to give up a goal on the season, and other players are contributing besides the core returning group. Eighth-grader Sofia Barker scored a goal in the season opener at Pojoaque Valley, and sophomore Felicia Madrid recorded an assist in a 2-0 win over Santa Fe Indian School on Saturday.
And the competitor in Segura is starting to think big picture — like maybe an appearance in the Class 1A/3A State Tournament in November.
“That’s our goal,” Segura said. “That’s always been our goal.” Patience, coach. Patience.