JAY – Angela Courchesney wanted to play on an all-girls soccer team. There were co-ed high school teams in Jay and Livermore Falls, but none where girls played exclusively against other girls.
Courchesney, 17, a senior at Jay High School, went to her gym teacher, Amanda Brooker, and mentioned the idea of getting an all-girl team together. The teacher was interested, Courchesney said, and told her that at least 12 girls would be needed to start a team.
So Courchesney began asking girls who were athletic but not participating in a fall sport if they wanted to play. From there, other girls asked their friends. The interest grew, and eventually the Wildcats were a club.
Volunteer coaches Brooker and fellow Jay teacher Janet Wicks, as well as athletic directors from both high schools, Kenric Charles of Jay and Sally Boivin of Livermore Falls, and Jay soccer coach Tim Noll all had a hand in getting the team going.
The Wildcats are made up of more than a dozen girls from the two schools, which are supporting them with transportation and game officials.
Team members wear some of the Andies’ older green and gold uniforms for home games and black and orange Tiger uniforms for away games.
The Wildcats practice at the Jay soccer field and play their games at the Livermore Falls Recreation Field.
Courchesney said she is “very excited” about playing on the team. She started soccer in the fifth grade after a friend got her interested in it.
“I enjoyed it a lot,” she said. “It was a way of getting energy out, and I just had so much fun.”
But basketball is her main sport, said Courchesney, adding, “I like to keep busy.”
She’s involved in several activities, including being 2005 class treasurer and president of the school’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America. She’s also a Big Sister and plays the trombone in the school’s concert and jazz bands.
Diagnosed with dyslexia in the eighth grade, Courchesney said she has worked to overcome reading difficulties.
“I have to work really hard” at her schoolwork, she said, but it’s “not so much of a challenge now because I have people that will help me. But I’m pretty independent.”
Courchesney is a fullback on the soccer team.
“I feel great,” she said. “I’m still in awe that so many girls have committed themselves to playing and that I helped influence them to play.”
What she really likes, she said, is how the girls from Jay and Livermore Falls are playing together without the rivalry of being from two different schools.
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