Grace Paparo and Lily Loewenguth                                                                                                  Staff Writers

This season, Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s Varsity Girls and Boys Soccer teams have come very far in very little time. Both teams rank in the top three, with the girls team ranked first and the boys team ranked third in the Salt City Athletic Conference. Both teams have high hopes of making it to, and winning, sectionals this year despite their losses.

This year, the Lady Rams moved into the Salt City Athletic Conference and so are now playing teams who they wouldn’t usually play. Despite this they started off strong with a record of 8-2, losing only to West Genesee and Fulton. Their biggest rivals this year are Fayetteville-Manlius, East Syracuse-Minoa and West Genesee. “Going into the season, the girls set goals and each player concluded they all want to communicate better and become better players as a team and individually,” said Head Coach Haley Nies.

Since they have set these goals, “there has been a lot team bonding,” says sophomore Grace Dimkopoulos. “Along with becoming better, the team also wants to make it to sectionals. In order to make it that far they want to continue to work as a team and use scoring opportunities wisely,” says sophomore Sydney Baker. Although past loses have had an impact on the team, they decided to not let it affect how they play. “We’ve decided to fight harder and become more competitive.” says senior captain Lainey Foti.

The experiencing of losing in states two years in a row has motivated them this year because they know what losing feels like after making it so far and they don’t want to feel like that again. In the face of losing many “contributing” seniors and last year’s top scorer, Foti says the team had to do a lot of adjusting. But they are now “looking good” and have their eyes on winning a state championship. “This year we’re going to win,” said Dimkopoulos and Baker.