John Orrell<\/b><\/p>\n
Special to The Landmark USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n
HOLDEN \u2014 They play with heart, unbridled enthusiasm and tenacity that make them inspiring and a pleasure to watch. It doesn\u2019t take long to comprehend that a new day is dawning for this squad with a new and energetic head coach at the helm leading the way.<\/p>\n
They are the Wachusett Regional High girls\u2019 varsity soccer team, and leading them as head coach is 2016 WRHS alumna Emma Mailman, who is back to restore a winning culture that has been absent since back-to-back state championships in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n
Mailman has already won the confidence of her players in the early stages of the season with team unity front and center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the number one thing we learned tonight is that this team has heart,\u201d said Mailman after a fierce battle at Hal Lane Field won by Westborough High,1-0, on Sept. 8. \u201cThe past couple of years have been tough between COVID and new coaching staff. There\u2019s been a lot of adjustments. All I asked from the girls tonight was an undeniable effort. No one can deny them putting in 100% effort every play, every minute, and I believe that\u2019s what they did tonight, especially in the last 15 minutes. I\u2019m incredibly proud of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to continue to focus on the basics. It\u2019s really organizing our defensive shape in the middle. I\u2019ve switched the formation that they\u2019re used to, and they\u2019re seeing something new. It\u2019s just game by game. We have to grow and develop together. Our defensive shape and some communication is what we have to work on a little bit. If we focus on too big of a picture, we\u2019re not going to be able to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Coaching) has always been my dream since I left here, and I\u2019ve always said that I wanted to come back and have an effect on this team. I didn\u2019t know what role exactly, but I\u2019m so incredibly grateful to be in this role right now\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since graduating from WRHS, Mailman has attended Assumption University where she played on the school\u2019s soccer team and earned her master’s in business in 2021. She is presently an assistant soccer coach at Assumption.<\/p>\n
Wachusett teammates Jesse Ayers, Madison Grignon and Renee Rettig all weigh in on the specialness of learning from Mailman and the way she conducts things on and off\u008d the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Emma. I\u2019ve always looked up to her at the college level, especially,\u201d said Rettig, the team\u2019s starting goalkeeper. \u201cWe all look up to her and really take her words to heart. We can use tonight as motivation for the rest of the season. We have a lot of games ahead of us, and we\u2019ll see Westborough again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have really good chemistry. A lot of us have played together for a number of years. We all get along really well, and I think it shows on the fi\u0081eld.’ \u201cI\u2019m new to the District and I love Emma so much,’ said Ayers. ‘She makes us laugh but also pushes us hard at practice, and she connects with us so well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s such a mentor and inspires us so much. She played in college, she played here and has done all the things we want to do,\u201d Grignon added. \u201cHer words and her wisdom, we all take to heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to keep working our hardest in games and practice. We have to show up at practice with game intensity. We\u2019re looking forward to the competition we\u2019ll face this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what she likes most from what she has seen in these early stages of the season, Mailman pauses and is thoughtful in her response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing I like the most about this team is that even in tough situations, my team walks off the field together with their heads held high, picking each other up. Being in this program myself, I know how intense it can be. It\u2019s the amount of pride that these girls have in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of the 2022 Wachusett Regional High girls\u2019 varsity soccer team are Renee Rettig, Emma George, Kaitlyn Johnson, Wikitoria Ucher, Charlotte Brisbois, Ashley Slavin, Katlyn Perna, Kate Larose, Jesse Ayers, Madison Grignon, Brenna Patenaude, Alyssa Senecal, Aila Head, Syd Line, Kassidy Mcghee, Ava Giorgi, Rahma Giwa, Ashlyn Panerello, Molly Kelley, Jillian Beando, Ava Warner, and Abby Lei. Captains are Madison Grignon, Renee Rettig and Wikitoria Ucher. The team is led by fi\u0081rstyear head coach Emma Mailman, assisted by Nikki Dipilla. The team manager is Isabella Grady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They play with heart, unbridled enthusiasm and tenacity that make them inspiring and a pleasure to watch. It doesn\u2019t take long to comprehend that a new day is dawning for this squad with a new and energetic head coach at the helm leading the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}