Photos by Sam Chandler.
Chelsea’s Lexie Duca (3) kicks the ball during a soccer match between Chelsea and Mountain Brook on Feb. 26 at Mountain Brook High School.
Lexie Duca, Claire Guillen and Carson Reeves share a lot in common.
All three have played soccer together since they were 4 years old and are now senior captains on the Chelsea High School girls varsity team.
This spring, they’re shooting for the same goal.
“Go out with a bang,” said Reeves, a center back, standing beside her teammates before a late February match. “It’s our last year.”
It couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.
Chelsea entered the season as the top-ranked Class 6A girls team and has played like it.
The Hornets won their division of the Lakeshore Shootout tournament in February and are off to an 11-1 start.
“I think there’s a lot of unfinished business,” Chelsea head coach Jonathan Hammett said. “I think they’ve been motivated.”
Hammett’s squad won the 6A state title in 2017 — thanks in part to the contributions of Duca, Guillen and Reeves — but could not defend it last spring. Chelsea fell 4-0 to John Carroll Catholic, the eventual state champion, in the quarterfinal round of the 2018 playoffs.
“We kind of went in a little bit over our heads,” said Duca, a midfielder, “so we didn’t play as well as we probably could have throughout the whole entire season.”
Maintaining mental sharpness has become a priority for Chelsea in 2019. The team knows it possesses the physical ability and technical skill set to make a deep playoff run. It’s simply a matter of staying dialed in.
“If we just keep our heads strong and go with it, I think we’ve got it,” Duca said.
Hammett has been impressed with his team’s performance thus far. He’s seen his players rebound from mental lapses and make in-game adjustments.
“I think we’ve played better in every second half this year than we’ve played in the first half,” Hammett said.
That was apparent in the Hornets’ late February win over Mountain Brook. Chelsea’s Kailey Littleford scored two first-half goals, but the Spartans answered each time to tie it 2-2 at intermission.
Chelsea didn’t concede another goal after the break.
In the game’s final minutes, Haley Duca sealed her team’s 3-2 triumph when she fired a shot from the right corner of the 18-yard box that sailed beyond the goalkeeper’s reach.
“I feel like we’re coming together more as a team,” Hammett said. “I think we’re all starting to row the boat in the same way, so to speak.”
Chelsea will aim to keep rowing in the right direction throughout the remainder of its season. Many teams will have a hard time slowing the Hornets down.
They like to play a fast-paced game characterized by quick passing.
“That’s what we’re best at,” said Guillen, a midfielder. “We’re not really a kick-it-and-run team. We do good with possessing the ball and working together.”
Chelsea outscored its first 12 opponents 63-13. That ratio will be difficult to sustain as the season wears on, but Hammett won’t be afraid to challenge his players.
One of his favorite quotes is from Steve Prefontaine, a prominent American distance runner in the 1970s, who said “to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
Prefontaine’s words appeared on Chelsea’s state championship T-shirts two years ago and reside on a wall in the team’s locker room.
It reminds the Hornets to shoot for their best every day.
“Iron sharpens iron, and that’s exactly what we do,” Lexie Duca said.
