No 'Mean Girls' on Madison
By Dave Buschenfeldt
Some coaches use movies to motivate their teams, showing inspirational films to fire up their players before a big game. Madison girls soccer coach Kurt Kuykendall, on the other hand, likes to reference an unusual movie when explaining to his team what types of players he wants the Warhawks to be.“I joke with them that I've seen 'Mean Girls,' and we know what it looks like,” Kuykendall said, referencing the 2004 film that portrayed the cruelty of female high school cliques. “It ain't happening here. We've had a peaceful environment. Win, lose or draw, we want to play hard and give our best.”
Kuykendall stresses character first and foremost when it comes to choosing players for his team, and it all starts with the three seniors on the 2008 Madison roster. Midfielder Sara Diggs, forward Blake Krejci and goalkeeper Grace Rosales embody all of the qualities Kuykendall feels are necessary to build a successful team.
“We would not pick a player who was a bad person,” Kuykendall said. “The three seniors are the best people. They're well-liked and respected, and they care for other people. That's one of the qualifications for leadership, the ability to take care of yourself and take care of other people. They do a great job. I'm very proud of them.”
The Warhawks' seniors have needed to fully step into their leadership role on a youthful team that has half its roster filled with freshmen and sophomores.
“We have to step up and be leaders,” Diggs said. “We do have a young team, so we're trying to be the best role models that we can. We want to make sure the team has a good future.”
Madison has had its struggles this season, but the Warhawks had won six of their 10 games through Monday and were 3-2 in Liberty District play following a loss to Woodson Friday night.
The biggest challenge, Diggs said, has been getting all the new, inexperienced girls to play well within the Madison system.
“We have a lot of talent this year, we're just trying to build our team into a more cohesive unit,” said Diggs, who likely will try to walk on to the varsity team at the University of Virginia next year.
Despite losing back-to-back games, Kuykendall and his players are confident that they will be at their best when the Liberty District tournament begins in two weeks.
"Our goals are to build a strong defense," he said. "We're going to work on finding the right people, finding the right formation and go from there. The big question mark is, 'Who are we? Who can we be?'"
Added Diggs, "All the young players really have added to the team. I just want to keep playing hard. I want the team to keep improving."