Since the early age of 4 Katy Puig, Coco Aguilar, Gaby Paredes, and Stephanie Wyszkowski have played soccer. This has been the case for the past 14 years, and they have played the last 4 as members of the varsity Lourdes soccer team.

Aguilar plays mainly attacking midfielder, and occasionally striker, right wing, or left wing. Puig mainly plays center midfielder along with the other two mid-field positions.Wyszkowski and Paredes both play goalie.

Each of the girls have left their lasting impressions with their coaches, teammates, and with the field.

“Katy, from the moment I met her, had a smile on her face and a great attitude,” head soccer coach David Fique said. 

Being on the team with so many available role models has inspired the girls to work hard and strive to be better. Aguilar’s inspiration were some of the seniors on the team while she was a freshman.

“My greatest inspiration would either be Mia Atrio or Isabel Maria Guisasola because they were seniors when I was a freshman and I actually wanted to be them,” Aguilar said. “They were the coolest, most athletic people, and were so good on the soccer field; that’s what I wanted to be as a senior.” 

Being on the team for so long has been a major responsibility for these girls. They practice Monday through Thursday from 3:00 to 4:30 pm, with the exception of game days.

“It’s a huge commitment, but the team is so fun and I love doing it so committing to practices and games isn’t hard for me,” said Paredes.

With big commitments come certain lifestyle challenges such as: dietary, sleep, and social. 

“It’s hard because you do have to be conscious about what you eat especially before game days, and it’s hard to balance the practices, work, and keeping a good sleep schedule, but it’s what I love, so the good weighs out the bad,” Wyzkowski said.

Joining varsity so early in their highschool career was quite an impressive feat. The girls trained relentlessly to get to where they are now. They all agreed on one thing, that being a freshman on a team of older girls taught them how to become better players. 

“You learn so much because these girls have been playing soccer much longer than you have and as a freshman playing against seniors on other teams you grow to be a lot better and more aggressive,” Aguilar said. 

The girls first year on the team, they won their state finals, leaving their freshmen year as soccer champions.

“It was the best feeling ever,” Paredes said. “There’s no word to describe it, and of course I’m grateful we got there the last three years, but winning it is just the greatest feeling ever.” 

Becoming champions, these girls have gained experience, and with such have come to appreciate different aspects of the sport they’ve become so fond of. 

“I’ve learned to appreciate the perseverance that goes into playing this sport,” Wyszkowski said. “It’s a great feeling to put in hard work and see it pay off.”

After being on the team for such a long period of time the girls have created lasting memories, stemming all the way from freshman year to now. 

“Freshman year when I scored my first goal being on the varsity team,” Aguilar said. “It was a 1-0 game so it was the only goal, everyone made me feel so special and loved.” 

These girls have created a bond with their coaching staff. Puig, not being present this year, has only inspired her teammates and coaches that much more.

“My personal favorite memory with Katy was last year’s regional finals, against Doral,” Fique said.

There was a corner kick play with  3:30 seconds left on the clock. Usually Puig wasn’t assigned corner kicks, however, at that moment she was begging him to let her do it, so he allowed it. 

“I played myself so I knew that at that moment she felt something, so we allowed her to kick it and she had an assist, which was technically the goal Mariana Rionda scored, winning us the regional finals,” Fique said.

This moment displayed Puig’s perseverance and ferociousness on the field to the coaches, players, and all those watching.

Aguilar has had quite a successful career playing at Lourdes. This year she won the Miami Dade County Girls Player of The Year for Classes 5-7A.

Aguilar and Paredes both plan to play club soccer during their time in college, and Wyszkowski will possibly be going to the next level in her career.

“There may be something in the works,” Wyszkowski said.

After their long experience with the Varsity team the girls are going their separate ways.

“It’s a bittersweet moment because I’m so grateful that I was able to do four years on the team, it’s been such a huge part of my life, and I’m really sad that it’s over,” Paredes said.