The girls talk all the time about being a team, playing as a team, working as a team.
That four-letter word is sprinkled in almost every conversation after a soccer game, after a victory. Waubonsie Valley had plenty of both in the 2007 season.
The Warriors won their first state championship last spring, going 30-0-1 to tie the official state record for most victories in a season. Led by then-sophomores Bri Rodriguez and Claire Hanold and then-freshman Vanessa DiBernardo, Waubonsie Valley outscored its opponents 129-8.
The defending Class AA champs lost eight seniors but should still have a lot to talk about. And the Warriors will do more than talk about the concept of team.
This spring break, Waubonsie’s players, as they’ve done for years, will venture hundreds of miles away from Chicago-area soccer fields to find out just what kind of a team they are.
During the first week of April, they’ll travel to Georgia and Tennessee for a team-building trip that Hanold says proves invaluable.
“It’s probably one of the best experiences ever, because you’ll do things you’ve never done before,” the team’s goalkeeper said before the season. “This year we’re doing hang-gliding, a high-ropes course, whitewater rafting and paintballing.”
It’s all the idea of Julie Bergstrom, who has compiled a 124-38-14 record in her seven seasons as coach at Waubonsie, a team from one of the toughest girls soccer conferences in Illinois. The Upstate Eight includes former state champion Neuqua Valley, St. Charles North and St. Charles East, an eight-time state champ as simply St. Charles during 1990-2000.
The idea must have caught on with her players at a time when many of the area’s best choose to play for private clubs instead of their high schools in the spring.
“Bergstrom definitely goes above and beyond a regular high school coach,” said Rodriguez, a high school All-American as a sophomore.
DiBernardo, whose father, Angelo, coaches the Waubonsie boys team and is a former Hermann Trophy award winner and played professionally for the New York Cosmos in the 1980s, obviously benefited as a freshman. The midfielder tied a championship-game record with three goals against Fremd in the 4-0 victory. She finished with a team-high 21 goals.
Rodriguez, also a midfielder, totaled 17 goals and a team-leading 23 assists last season. Maybe it’s simply coincidence, but the junior already has made an oral commitment to West Virginia. The team’s trip last spring was to that state.
Hanold allowed only eight goals last season and finished with 24 shutouts, tying her for second on the state’s all-time list. In two seasons, the DePaul recruit has allowed only 15 goals and compiled 42 shutouts, a reachable 28 from the state record.
Other key players are 6-foot junior defender Rachel Bostick, who scored seven goals last season and last winter helped Waubonsie’s basketball team to a 25-3 record; senior forward Jessica Blake, who had all three goals in the state semifinal victory over Granite City; and junior midfielder Ali Stahlke.
“We play so much better after the trip because we know so much about each other,” Hanold said.
“We take five days when we don’t even think about soccer, don’t pick up a soccer ball. It’s just nice to have a good break so that you can get to know your teammates.”
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ON THE INTERNET
Watch video interviews with Waubonsie’s Vanessa DiBernardo, Claire Hanold and Bri Rodriguez at chicagosports.com/prepsplus
