Heading into the 2024–25 girls soccer season, this Cottonwood Colts team is feeling optimistic about their chances to make more noise in Class 4A than ever. 

“The team is looking awesome!” said Cottonwood head girls soccer coach Bryce Harvest as the summer months have now reached a moratorium period. 

For Harvest, this is a time to reset, revisit his team’s goals and look ahead at the season to come, one that he and his team hope will achieve even more success than last year when the Colts won two of their last five games but suffered a first-round state tournament exit at Murray. 

By the time this article is published, the two-a-day camp portion of team training will have begun, the time when Harvest’s players will get ready for the season ahead by running hills at the Colts football stadium nearby in the early morning hours. At night, the team will learn the tactics and techniques they’ll be using in the fall. It’s all a grueling but necessary portion of preseason training for any high school soccer team.  

After the camp portion ends though, it’ll be time to play ball. 

With several girls who played as freshmen returning it will be a team that is reloading, to a degree. 

“Losing our captain Ciel Budge hurts us but we’re looking for some of the younger girls to strive to fill those vacant shoes,” said Coach Harvest.  

Along with the team’s leading scorer in Lulu Vernon who will be a senior and who bagged 10 goals last season as a junior, this Cottonwood team will be one to watch from the first kick. 

“We’re looking for Lulu to have a fantastic senior season as well,” added Cottonwood’s head coach. 

With a slew of girls who played as freshmen expected to return it will be a loaded team. Along with the team’s leading scorer in Lulu Vernon, who bagged 10 goals last season as a junior, this Cottonwood team will be one to watch from the first kick. 

To start the season, however, the Colts will need to do it on the road—they’re away for their first three games. 

The first game will be played at Cyprus, a school in 5A, on Aug.13, in a nonleague contest. 

They’ll continue their journey on the road with a game at Jordan to start the Region 10 season very early, on Aug. 19. 

Cottonwood will wrap up this three-game roadie at 5A Taylorsville for a nonleague game Aug. 20. 

On Aug. 21, the Colts will play their first home game as they entertain Park City for a Region 10 showdown. 

They’ll hop back on the fun bus Aug. 26 for a date at Tooele to round out the first month of action, which will be led by several girls who played significant minutes as freshmen last year and contributed mightily. Several of them scored goals. 

After the Labor Day break, the Colts will begin a stretch where they’ll play three of their next four Region 10 games at home including one against Murray, the rival that ended Cottonwood’s season at the 4A state tournament. 

On Sept. 5, Cottonwood will travel to Stansbury. 

Four days later, the Colts will play their second rival in three games when they clash with Hillcrest, Sept. 9, on Cottonwood’s home turf. 

The Colts will wrap up their three-game homestand on Sept. 11 when they host Jordan. 

As a team, Cottonwood will hop on the bus for a ride through the canyon to Park City and a Sept. 16 showdown there. 

The games keep coming Sept. 18 as Cottonwood will host Tooele. At that point, the Colts will wrap up a critical three-game stretch with a quick trip over to Murray for a Sept. 25 rivalry showdown against the Spartans. 

After that, it’s a short burst to the finish for a Colts team that last year dealt with a number of issues—new players to soccer, players who hadn’t played the sport for several years, players new to the physicality of high school soccer—and so forth. 

That all resulted in a 4-12 season. But, this is also a Colts team that shut out Hillcrest 3-0 toward the end of the last season to grab their first win in region play and won two of their last five games. 

So, you can see why there might be some optimism at Cottonwood about a young team that got better last year as the season wore on. 

And after playing a Sept. 30 game at home against Stansbury on Senior Day where they’ll honor those about to graduate, the Colts will again have an opportunity to play their crosstown rivals at Hillcrest Oct. 2 to wrap up what should be a fun season. 

Along with help from his brother—assistant coach Brylee Harvest who doubles as the boys’ head coach for the Colts—Bryce and his girls will be one team to watch.  λ