By Rebecca Bartlett [1]
BELLEVILLE — When it comes to school athletics, a new school year means a new team.
Which means returning and rookie players with different personalities have to come together as one.
Team bonding is important to make sure teams have a successful regular season.
Stephanie Young is taking post graduate public relations [2] at Loyalist College. She is also the vice president of student government [3] and co-captain of the women’s soccer team [4]. With three years of playing experience in the OCAA [5], Young knows that you need to get along with your teammates.
“I think it’s very important. It’s kind of good that everybody meshes, not only on the field playing, but also that you get along off the field. I know a lot of teams in the past that haven’t really liked each other, and you can definitely tell on the field,” said Young.
The women’s soccer team spends a lot of time together, whether it’s on the bus to away games, going for team dinners, celebrating birthdays or organizing the team’s annual bake sale, Young added.
Bethany Bolton, a rookie member of the women’s soccer team agrees.
“It [team bonding] is very important because then you get to know your team, you’re more comfortable, you play better together. It just helps everyone,” Bolton said.
“The coaches help at the beginning, and then afterwards we all just become better friends and want to do things together,” Bolton said.
Soccer is one of the first sports to start up at Loyalist College since they have a very short season. Sports like basketball and volleyball start much later and play for longer. Alex Cox, a first-year general arts and sciences [6] student and member of the men’s volleyball [7] team, says his team hasn’t focused on bonding too much yet.
“Everyone is just becoming familiar with each other, so I think our coach is planning a bunch of things. And once we travel together, I think it’ll help us a lot,” said Cox.
He said that the team will need to do more bonding before the regular season starts in order for them to be successful.