YUCAIPA, CA – A 20-5-1 record and a second-place finish in the tough eight-team Citrus Belt League with a 12-2 record would have most of the league’s girl’s soccer coaches and teams absolutely beaming. Absolutely giddy with pride.
Well, that’s not the way things work at Yucaipa High School.
Over the past several years, the bar has been set high for the Lady Thunderbirds. They expect to win league every year. And they expect to go far in the California Interscholastic Federation post-season playoffs.
Anything less leaves them with a bit of an empty feeling. Sort of like a hungry lumberjack sitting down to a kid’s meal at Denny’s.
This year the Lady Thunderbirds finished second in the CBL to their long-standing rivals from down the hill – the Redlands East Valley Wildcats – which sealed their fate as the CBL’s second place team and the number two seed in the CIF-Southern Section, Division II Playoffs.
Last year the team won its second-consecutive league championship with an 11-0-3 mark, 25-3-4 overall, and Yucaipa won three games to advance to the semi-finals of CIF playoffs where they lost to Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood, 2-1.
How does Yucaipa coach, Sheila Huggins feel about her 2009-2010 Lady Thunderbirds versus last year’s model?
“Last year, I think we were a tad bit stronger because we had great senior leadership from people like April Moreno and Kellie Bohner,” Huggins said. “Plus the speed and heart of Braelyn Tirella kept us in every game.
