The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Host state game Saturday at Western turf field at 1 p.m.
[ by Than Acuff ]
The Crested Butte Titans girls’ soccer team finished the regular season with a record of 8-2 and is seeded fourth in the 2A state tournament. They open the post season at home on Saturday, June 19 on the Western Colorado University turf field at 1 p.m.
It’s been an interesting season to say the least for the Titans with the season pushed back in the calendar statewide due to COVID, leaving spring sports to finish out their seasons well after school has ended. Furthermore, the league was thrown somewhat into disarray as several schools in Crested Butte’s league struggled to even put teams together, let alone strong teams.
As a result, the Titans rolled to easy wins in eight of their 10 league games dropping both games to Telluride as the girls struggled to switch gears from easy matches to high intensity play.
“It was frustrating,” says coach Julia Kidd. “It was really hard to keep up the intensity. Some games we have to coach them to slow down the scoring and then they don’t understand urgency and physical play in the tougher games.”
The girls now head into the post season a bit depleted as they will be missing two key seniors for the state tournament.
“We’ll be missing two integral seniors but we pulled up some really promising freshmen and sophomores and have 20 girls on the roster,” says Kidd.
In addition, Crested Butte closed out their season a week before the official end to the season leaving them with a break from competitive play before the opening state game. And as students head into summer jobs, Kidd has adjusted practices to morning sessions to accommodate work schedules as much as possible.
“Our practices have been limited and we sometimes only have 14 players that can make it,” says Kidd. “But, I think other schools, especially the mountain town schools, are struggling with this as well.”
The Titans kick off the tournament against third-ranked Buena Vista, a team they faced in an “unofficial” match during the season losing to them 2-1. Crested Butte was missing a number of players for that game so Kidd is hoping that with their roster somewhat restored, they may be somewhat of a surprise to Buena Vista.
“It’s a winnable game and they don’t know who we really are,” says Kidd.
“We’re fortunate in that we have depth,” adds assistant coach Adrienne Weil.
If the Titans win on Saturday, they will then hit the road for the semifinal game on Wednesday, June 23 where they will face the winner of the Telluride/Vail Christian game. Win that one and the Titans head to the 2A final on Saturday, June 26.
“The way the bracket is set up, a mountain town team is probably headed to the finals,” says Kidd. “I told the girls, buy in and let’s get this done.”
