In 1971, girls soccer teams made their debut in the American Youth Soccer Organization; following that trend, Aragon launched its own girls soccer team a few years later.
In 1996, the girls soccer team gained traction under head coach Michael Flynn.
“[The program was] rebuilt by Flynn, who laid the foundation in 1996, and [former coach and current AP US History teacher] Will Colglazier, [who] made them champions,” explains athletic director and football coach Steve Sell.
Flynn played a major role in the girls’ promotion from from the Ocean Division, where they had a 9-0-1 record, to the Bay Division, where the team stands now.
“[The team developed a] sense of community and camaraderie under Flynn,” explains Colglazier.
“[Their bond was key in their success and essential in] qualifying for CCS every year between [1997] and [2008] except [2006],” states Flynn. “Before big games [the team] had meals and the girls gave big sister gifts.”
However, Colglazier is quick to credit his players — not himself — for his team’s success.
“Any coach that isn’t lying to you will say that coaching is only part of the equation, and that you have to have talented players.”
Many of his players continued their soccer careers past high school, including midfielder Melissa Woo, who played for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and defender Sarah Bell, who went on to play for Cal State Los Angeles.
Says former boys soccer coach Guy Oling, “success breeds more success.”
In the 2006-2007 school year at Aragon, the girls managed a 65 percent winning percentage, and even beat Menlo-Atherton, which was a major victory.
Three years later, the Lady Dons became Coast Section champions, and in 2011, were crowned co-CCS champions.
Says Colglazier on his team’s 2010 CCS championship match, “It was getting late in the game, and we were up, and I was like, ‘We’re the better team’. They got kind of a lucky call with the handball in the box, and our freshman keeper stopped it, but the deflection, though, went back to the shooter, and she got to tap it in for a goal, but it went to overtime, and it was a sense of, not dread, but it was a hot day, we were playing [for] a long time. When they scored in the first [stoppage time of the first half of overtime], that break in-between [the first and second halves of overtime] was when I had to rile the troops, because they were down. So I kinda made up this number that we had scored 50 goals, and we could score 50 more, [so] we could score one more. But it was really the tactical smarts of our team. Rachel Bradley-Haas moved up to forward, so we had three forwards instead of our [normal] two. Stephanie Woo, our center-mid, decided to be smart, to catch them sleeping, and have a really quick corner instead of waiting for them to set up defensively. I completely understand that it was our players playing smart, which is always what we wanted. Play smart, it’s not just about playing hard, it’s about playing smart.”
Colglazier, as well as the rest of his 2010 team, was inducted into the Aragon Athletic Hall of Fame last January.
However, two years later, the Lady Dons’ dominance ran out, and by the 2013 season, their winning average dropped to 35 percent, and the next year, it fell again to 26 percent.
Aragon has produced several talented players who continue in college, and next up is junior midfielder Toni Tsamasfyros, who committed to Colorado College, a Division 1 school for soccer.
“I didn’t play Aragon soccer last year just because I needed to improve my skills with my club so that I could commit to a college,” Tsamafyros explains, “but it had nothing to do with the fact that I don’t enjoy Aragon soccer. Honestly the reason I’m playing this year is because I absolutely loved it my freshman year and I actually really missed it last year.”
Starting from a young age in AYSO soccer, several girls work on their game to enhance and contribute to the Aragon soccer program. Despite the ups and downs, Aragon has seen lots of talent and determination across the board.
Six years removed from its last CCS championship, trophies are running thin for the girls — a trend they hope to reverse in the coming years.
