Eagles soaring following win over OCHS
Oak Park girls' soccer squad second in TVL
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

SOPHIA FISCHER/Acorn Newspapers TALENTED TRIO- From left, Brooke Mandell, Christina Zeolla and Kirstie Lincoln, the three seniors on the Oak Park High girls' varsity soccer team, take a break during Tuesday's practice.

Although they go into every game expecting to win, Oak Park High's girls' varsity soccer players surprised themselves with a 32 victory in overtime on Monday against their longtime rivals Oaks Christian.

"We've only tied or lost to Oaks Christian. This was huge for our school," said Kirstie Lincoln, an Oak Park team captain along with fellow senior Brooke Mandell and junior Sasha Arya.

The win is also significant for other reasons. Oak Park's team is young. There are only three seniors and three juniors on the 16member team. This is Mark Zeolla's first year as varsity head coach. He coached the junior varsity team for two years prior. In addition, it's Oak Park's first year in the more competitive TriValley League.

"This is a tough league. The pressure the team is under is tremendous, but they're up for it," Zeolla said. "They know they have one job- to win our league and quality for CIF."

With a record of 6-2-1, Oak Park holds second place behind St. Bonaventure. The team's "fate is in everybody else's hands," Zeolla said.

St. Bonaventure has to lose or tie two games for Oak Park to move ahead. But game results are up for grabs among the other league teams: La Reina, Nordhoff, Oaks Christian, Malibu and Santa Paula. Only four will go to CIF. In the prior league, everyone went to CIF, Zeolla said. The games were not as challenging for Oak Park.

"It's not a victory when you win easily," Zeolla said. "Now when we win, we earn a victory."

The increasing number of players coming from years on club and all-star teams has helped make Oak Park dominant.

"But we don't have any one person carrying the team," Zeolla said. "It's not about any one individual. We're a team."

The camaraderie of the girls, many of whom have known one another since early childhood, has had an impact on how well they play together, according to Mandell.

"We come from a small community and have grown up together. We're like sisters," Mandell said.

The team's weakness is that there are no true forwards, Zeolla said. Club players who came in as fullbacks have been retrained as forwards, including Tayler Johnson, Ashley Umann, Lauren Kawamoto, Kelsea Shorten and Melanie Gaball. Strengths include the team's defense led by captains Lincoln, Mandell and Arya, with only five goals given up so far this season.

Zeolla also credits the school district's policy of accepting students who live outside of Oak Park with the team's powerful and diverse makeup.

"We've got some great players from out-of-district who come here for the education," Zeolla said. "Nobody is on academic probation. The girls help each other."

With only three seniors, Lincoln, Mandell and Christina Zeolla, there won't be much room for junior varsity players to move up next year. With 20 players, the JV team, led by Coach Julio Ramirez, is a strong one with only one early season loss to Oaks Christian, its first loss to Oaks in a number of years, Zeolla said. Despite the loss, Oak Park dominated in both games against Oaks Christian.

"JV hasn't had a loss in four years," Zeolla said. "It's nice for them to be in a challenging league."

Oak Park's soccer program has overcome challenges that came with a last-minute change in coaches last year after an alleged hazing incident among varsity players. Ramirez, who has been with the program for five years, is in his first year as head JV coach and is assistant varsity coach. Both Zeolla and Ramirez say they have the same philosophy, teaching theory as well as playing tactics.

"We've gone through a lot with the drama that's gone on," Arya said. "This season didn't start out as great as it should have. Our mentality in the beginning was too relaxed."

But the athletes quickly gelled, she added, because of strong bonds among the players and the coaches' positive attitude.

"Our team has the ability to cope with whatever circumstances we're given," Lincoln said. "There's never any negative energy."

The team's biggest challenges come next week when they face La Reina on Wednesday and Nordhoff on Friday.

"We need to play every game to the best of our ability," Christina Zeolla said. "If we do that we'll make it to CIF and win the league."