For Cottonwood girls soccer, it’s a team that is young—by choice. 

“As a coaching staff, we've stopped focusing on trying to keep players here who weren't happy and this year focused on the girls who want to be here,” said Cottonwood head coach Bryce Harvest. 

Out of the Colts’ projected starting 11, six girls quit the team and two others transferred, leaving the cupboard rather bare for the coming season. 

And yet the Colts staff focused on the players they had, which according to Coach Harvest has made all the difference. 

“The team is very young, but in a lot of ways I feel we're stronger than past years,” said Cottonwood’s coach who is in his third season at the school. 

What makes the Colts stronger in the coach’s view? 

“I think the girls are a bit more coachable and willing to learn,” said Coach Harvest, who guided Cottonwood to a state playoff berth in his first year at his alma mater. 

The Colts suffered a 4-0 defeat at Bear River on Tuesday September 12 and yet the young squad only allowed one goal in the second half—showing that promise that Coach Harvest had alluded to in his exclusive interview with City Journals. 

Cottonwood may be sitting at 0-2, but the Colts gave Hunter all it could handle on the road Wednesday August 13, before succumbing in a 1-0 loss. 

What is the engine moving this team forward in the coach’s view? 

His goalkeeper, Ella Galkin. The junior has been solid thus far, particularly in the second halves of Cottonwood’s first two games. 

“She has shown tremendous leadership in the past week with our team,” said Coach Harvest. “She definitely puts the team on her back during games and practices.” 

Galkin’s brother played at Cottonwood, too—and so the coach knows the family well. He admires both the brother and sister for the leadership they have provided and continue to provide. 

It’s a team that has just two returning seniors in Itzia Lopez and Ella Liljenquist. 

As luck would have it, both Lopez and Liljenquist play in the Cottonwood defense. Rounding out the back line is junior Piper Wilking—a standout at softball also—and sophomores Hazel and Annobel Flaim, Kayla Larsen, Cindy Mendez and Yori Pettus. 

The defense seems to be on par at the moment—a 4-0 loss 2 hours away from home is admirable, as is a narrow loss the day after that. 

In the midfield, the team is still pretty young—something that Coach Harvest admits. In the middle of the park, he’s got juniors Ava Halvorsen and Jocelyn Meneses who got some varsity moments last year. Along with freshmen Isobel Pilomaya and Gretchen Stiltz, as well as over a dozen late adds that either made the team at the first tryouts or the walk-in tryouts that the Colts had to hold after those eight starters left the team, the front line is and will be a work in progress for the rest of August. 

As for September? Who knows. One thing Coach Harvest does know, however, is that his defense is deep, and his goalkeeper is making the adjustments that are necessary to keep the Colts in games early on.