Xavier team to beat even without Ferry
Senior star not playing due to US commitment
There are bound to be times this girls soccer season when Phoenix Xavier Prep coach Barb Chura will look to her side for help from the team manger.
She happens to be Kyla Ferry, last year’s Gatorade and azcentral Sports Awards Girls Soccer Player of the Year, who punched in 19 goals and assisted on 12 others, leading the Gators to the 6A state championship.
Ferry, now a senior who has signed with Colorado, won’t be playing for her high school, because of her commitment to a development academy under U.S. Soccer for top-level high schoolage players that get them ready for bigger steps, maybe even the World Cup.
Ferry is currently playing for SC Del Sol, which is ranked No. 1 in the the Southwest in the U-18/19 age group, scoring four goals for the 11-1 team.
Ferry isn’t leaving Xavier’s program completely. Chura said she will remain as a manager. That is someone who makes sure everybody gets what the players and coaches need, who sometimes keeps track of stats.
“Do you know how much I’m going to be looking at the sideline, wanting to like...?” Chura said. “But I can’t do anything about it. That’s the way of the world is now with soccer.”
Chura isn’t complaining about her team.
“We’re going to be good, we’re going to be competitive,” she said. “We will get better as the season goes on. We always do. A lot of it depends on how we gel together as a team and, if we do it right, we’ll have a chance, like everybody else.”
This team will not only need to make up for the goals and assists that Ferry had last season, but will have to find somebody to keep the opponent’s from getting the ball into the net.
Kinsey Ehmann, now a freshman at Pepperdine, posted four shutouts in four state playoffs games last year at goalie. She had 12 saves in the 1-0 state championship win over Gilbert Perry.
This year’s team will still have great ambitions, behind a big five of seniors Karla Alvarado, Katie McGee, Lindsay Hubbard, Sadie Wintergalen and Caitlin Johnston.
Hubbard is the younger sister of Abby Hubbard, who assisted on Nicole Hook’s only goal in the title match.
Both Abby and Hook have graduated.
Lindsay Hubbard is returning to the high school team after playing on a club team that was in a national league last year. She will lead the middle as an attacking midfielder and get help from Wintergalen and Johnston, senior forwards, who also are back to the high school team after playing in the club national league last year.
“We didn’t get to play high school, but we’re back now and we’re super-excited,” Hubbard said. “I think there is a lot of talent here. There’s a lot of energy.”