YWLA soccer practices in a parking lot. The team made playoffs in its inaugural season
Young Women’s Leadership Academy girls soccer does not have a field on its campus and often practices on an uneven parking lot.
Still, the Fort Worth ISD program made the UIL playoffs in its inaugural season. The Lady Owls will face Decatur at Trophy Club Byron Nelson High School on Tuesday with a kickoff time of 7 p.m. CT.
The Star-Telegram spoke with YWLA head coach Mario Ortiz-Garcia about the team’s historic debut season.
What were some of the challenges of starting a program from the ground up?
We’re in downtown Fort Worth. We have no field. The biggest challenge was practicing in a parking lot that is not flat, that’s for sure. That was a problem. The other problem was running and catching up to the ball – sometimes, the girls would slip or fall, step on the ball and it would cause horrible scrapes. That was horrible.
We had no budget really, and the district was providing things, but as a brand new coach I had no idea what they could provide. And so that was a hurdle. Knowing what we were getting from the district, what I had to figure out – that was a hurdle. But eventually, we ended up with everything we needed.
How did the program manage to make the playoffs in its first season, and what were the keys to success?
I think it’s the type of players we have. These are ladies that are very determined. Very smart. And one of the things I told them was that even though they might have never played soccer – soccer is a lot about being smart .Individually each player really pushed themselves to be better.
All the credit goes to them. Sometimes, they come to me or the assistant coaches and they’re like, ‘how can I improve? How can do better?’ I wanted this team to be about having fun and enjoying soccer more than anything else because I knew most of them didn’t, or had never played. So that was my goal, just to have fun, and hopefully win some games. But I never thought we would go to the playoffs.
What does Nora Jordan (leading goal scorer) bring to your team?
She is a powerful player. Obviously, she scores the goals. But not only that – she has motivated everyone to be better and everyone knows that Nora has talent. Some of the ones that had never played, I think they stepped up their game. And that’s probably one of the reasons why they come and ask, you know, how can I get better? Because they see the potential or who they can be in Nora. Nora has just been great all around. So, we’re very blessed to have Nora.
How did you prepare the team for challenges they may face throughout the season, considering many players don’t have varsity high school soccer experience?
I never focused on the things that were not there. Once we started playing other schools – we started in August because we had athletics, and we were focusing on basic skills here in the parking lot. But once we started going out to games and seeing the facilities other programs had and all the things that were provided for them, that’s when we started noticing and saying ‘darn. It would be great to have a field.’
We never focused on that. We were just focused on getting practice in and figuring out our situation. We are solution oriented – That’s who we were from day one. And then once we were able to practice on a field, I mean, we took advantage of that as much as we could.
Editor’s note: Although YWLA does not have its own field, the team has been able to hold practices on off campus sites including Farrington field and Fort Worth North Side High School.
What will you remember most about YWLA’s inaugural season?
Our very first game against Dunbar. That was my first time ever coaching, so I was nervous about the whole thing, but it rained the entire game. The girls were like ‘well, are they going to cancel?’
You don’t cancel soccer unless there’s lightning. So, it was just very interesting how they were as nervous as I was because it was their first game, but they kept going and we were all drenched. It ended up being a tie, and I think that was the motivation that we all needed to realize that we could do it.
At that moment, we weren’t practicing a lot on the field or against the other teams. And in our previous experience, we had gone to a tournament and didn’t have great results. Playing against Dunbar, it was eye opening because that made me feel like we could do this. We can do this. And I think that helped our players as well.
This story was originally published March 26, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
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