WORLAND -2016 was the inaugural season for Worland Middle School soccer and both girls and boys teams closed out the season with a bang.

The season's final games were played in on May 14 Gillette against middle schools Twin Spruce and Sage Valley. Earlier in the season these two schools defeated Worland's eighth-grade boys team and the girls team. This time around though, along with seventh-grade boys team, Worland made it a clean sweep of the Gillette middle schools.

Boys head coach Jesus Davila and boys assistant coach Cody Smith with girls head coach Quintal Arnold and girls assistant coach Vanessa Keller were enthusiastic with their teams ending the season on a high note.

"It was very encouraging," said coach Davila, "We had a good mix of experienced and inexperienced players. The progress made by the team as a whole was very exciting to watch, they picked up on what we as coaches were asking of them and just gave it their all, whether it was a game or practice."

Smith noted how the experience players, like the ones who had been playing on traveling teams, helped with bringing along the inexperienced players. "It helped that we had kids from the traveling team, those players were kind of like coaches for us out there on the field. They did a nice job in helping those first timers along, I think it's part of the reason why we improved like we did."

Arnold said, "The girls understanding of the game from our first day at practice to our last day was just 'whoa.' They learned so quickly and kept pushing themselves each day."

Keller added, "Our touches and shifting got much better, that first day of practice their passes were frantically getting the ball to the nearest teammate. But by the end of the season they could make crosses or get it to another teammate who was further away."

The improvement the young soccer players made throughout the season would make any coach proud. But for the four coaches what they enjoyed most was the passion the players had for the game and the relationships they built with them.

"The girls came together as a team, persevered through the adversity and got better with each week. As a coach that's what you love to see and I think it's those little mini-life lessons that will help them later on in life," said Arnold.

"The relationships I built with these girls helped in that I could ask something of them and they'd do it exactly as I ask," said coach Keller, "It was also great to see the girls work together and build friendships through the common interest in soccer."

Coaches Davila and Smith loved the eagerness and focus from their team to build on their soccer skills, "We kept adding new drills and complex games for them to play during practice, and you could see the fun they were having. They'd even want to keep going after practice was done. So seeing the love of soccer start to take hold was amazing to watch," said coach Davila.

"At this level they're still pretty moldable and ready to learn. And my favorite part of this season was watching the lower-skilled players make these large leaps in improvement," said Smith.

Even though next season won't start until spring the coaches are excited and are already planning to add new wrinkles to their programs.

"Expanding my knowledge as a coach and finding better ways to teach the game to the players is what I'll be looking at improving. Anything that will further our players and better prepare them for any type of game scenario," said Davila.

"Now that we have the first season done, next year we'll have a better feel for running the practices and really focus on maximizing our practices," said Arnold.

"Having a finer-tuned routine in practice that way we can touch on more advanced techniques and add to the girls skill-set," said Keller.

The quick improvements made by the young soccer players along with the great coaches, supportive administration and excellent community support. Has set a strong foundation for WMS and Worland High School soccer programs and puts both on the path to becoming perennial powers in the state.