Players dribble the ball during a Howard girls' soccer practice Thursday. The second-year team got its first victory last week.
Sophomore captain Monteiana Ross talks during soccer practice Thursday at Howard School.The improvement has been gradual for the Howard girls' soccer team in its second season. But it has been evident, and now the Lady Tigers have something to show for it.
They achieved the first win in program history last week when they defeated the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy 3-0. Goals were scored by Quala Sparks, Nysha Sims and Brinique Malone, who also had an assist.
After the win, the Howard Young Life group, which attended the match to honor the five seniors, joined the players under the scoreboard as they celebrated the accomplishment.
"It was huge for us to get the win," sophomore captain Monteiana Ross said. "We don't get a lot of help from our school, and a lot of people make fun of us and are down on us, but it's been great because now we can say that we've won."
The goals scored were the first of the season for Howard, who had one all of last year. Some of the team members had not played soccer before, but the roster has grown from 12 to 16 in the course of 12 months.
"This year, we're working better as a team," Ross said. "We act more like sisters. Last year, we were all trying to be our own person, so we argued a lot and didn't work well together, but this season we've played a lot better."
Some of that growth has come from the nine returning players. In addition, Howard also is in the ESL [English as a Second Language] program that has brought transfers from East Ridge and Ooltewah who have helped the team improve.
One of those players, senior Kelin Salinas, has been "huge" for the Lady Tigers, according to coach Erica Vaughn.
"At first, I wasn't happy about being here, because I wanted to be at Ooltewah and play there," Salinas admitted, "but I've been able to make a lot of friends here and become a part of this team and this family."
The Lady Tigers are 1-10 heading into their District 6-A/AA quarterfinal match against East Ridge this morning at 11. Maybe their season ends today, but Vaughn is excited about a group of freshmen coming up who could help in seasons to come.
"For us, the wins aren't as important as the individual skill development," Vaughn said. "Some of our players have never played before, so we've spent a lot of time working on the fundamentals of the game, and our ball control and fundamentals have improved.
"We've been closer in some matches that we were blown out of last season, so the improvement has been steady. We got our first win in school history and everybody around here has been real excited about it."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.