As the echoes of their historic 2023-24 season still reverberate through the halls, the P.K. Yonge high school girls soccer team defied odds last year but want to win it all next season.
“It’s seamless, on and off the field,” said head coach Rebecca Schakow. “It’s just like life is one big field for them.”
Schakow and her P.K. Yonge Blue Wave team had the best season in program history winning their first district title in six years and making it to the final four, falling short to Montverde Academy, 3-0. Coach Schakow was named The Gainesville Sun’s “All Area Small School Coach of the Year” for her and her team’s accomplishments.
“I’m happy to receive that on behalf of our whole program,” Schakow said. “If it shines a light on our sport and gives us more attention and more momentum, then great. Bring it on.”
Schakow wasn’t the only member of the team who received an award. Junior Faith Hardy, 17, won The Sun’s “Girl’s Soccer Player of the Year.” Hardy was a major piece of the Blue Wave’s success and scored two goals in the regional final to send them to the final four.
“Winning player of the year definitely felt good,” Hardy said. “Because obviously it’s cool to get a title like that, and I think that just drives me personally to work harder and do even better next year.”
Hardy and the team credit much of their success to the family dynamic they have built and believe it will develop even more this offseason and into next year.
“The community we have at PK Yonge for soccer, like the girls team, I really got to understand how much love for the sport there is here, and how much of a family we are,” Hardy said. “It just brought us together, and I really realized that after.”
The season didn’t come without challenges, but Schakow said this helped the team.
“It had highs and lows,” Schakow said. “It had hard moments and really sweet moments, and it was a journey that you knew was rough and you had to endure, but you were around the people that you wanted to do that hard work with.”
While the team is excited and happy about their result and making school history, it proved to many they have what it takes to win it all, and they are already beginning to prepare.
“Little by little you have to find one thing to improve on,” Schakow said. “So you can’t do all of it overnight. You can’t even do all of it in one year, but in your career, you can become a great player.”
Schakow not only pushes teaching team building but also caters individually to players and their needs.
“Every year we have our check-ins, and I figure out what they’re doing in the offseason,” Schakow said. “And what they need to add to or adjust so they can improve. It’s very different for each girl.”
As for the players, they are beginning to practice on their respective club teams and in the weight room. Junior Mae Dodd, 17, said every day is preparation and a step closer to the next season.
“We always have training whether we’re going to Jacksonville with our clubs,” Dodd said. “Half of our team goes there weekly, and we’re doing lifts.”
Hardy emphasizes development off the field and keeping their chemistry. “By connecting as a team on and off the field during the offseason,” Hardy said. “Just practicing over the weekends together, doing group activities and stuff, doing group, just staying connected that way our chemistry develops.”
All of this work has proven to pay off and many of the players believe this team has helped them grow as people and players, including junior Mallory Dassa, 16.
“We’ve all kinda grown up on the team, and seeing people come out of their shells is the coolest feeling,” Dassa said.
The team knows the glory of the state championship won’t be easy and believes they’ll have a target on their backs.
“Teams are gonna want to come after us knowing we have this title, and they’re gonna want to beat us, especially the local teams,” Hardy said. “We’re just gonna face that with playing our same fight and doing what we can to be our best and not giving up.”
With eyes set on the state championship, this tight-knit group of athletes is not only chasing victory on the field but also inspiring their school community with their unwavering dedication and resilience.
“It totally has sparked interest which is cool,” Schakow said. “We have a lot of fans, the most fans we’ve ever had. We have faculty coming out. They see the players in class and they are more engaged and follow up with them which is cool because that’s building their relationship in the classrooms.”
As for other teams, Schakow believes that it’s driving other P.K. Yonge sports teams to success.
“It’s inspiring those teams to reach a little bigger and a little further than they thought they could,” Schakow.
A young team, the Blue Wave only lost two seniors and will be returning with a majority of the team. P.K. Yonge is also a K-12 school, meaning many of the younger and incoming players already have gotten to know the players and the program. Junior Sydnie Colaw, 16, said this development has benefitted them.
“We have all these younger people that are on our team right now, and some of them that are playing in these games,” Colaw said. “They are getting this experience too, but it’s just about knowing who we are despite if we win, we lose, and making sure to spread that message to the younger ones and mentor them.”
Schakow is hoping the new influx of soccer attention will allow them to form a junior varsity team.
“We’re hoping to expand our program because we only have a varsity team right now,” Schakow said.
The team’s success has not only affected the school community but the soccer community in north Florida as a whole.
“These girls are going out into their clubs and into the community, and they’re representing the sport,” Schakow said. “If they’re doing a great job, we’re helping them to be excellent and helping them do great things.”
While the season is officially over, the work has not stopped, on or off the field. Junior Elliot Pancoast, 17, says there is one motto that the team is driven by: “Don’t give up,” Pancoast said.