El Dorado’s Caroline Meadows has spent a portion of her summer with an eye on the future - her senior season. But, she hasn’t completely forgotten the past - a loss in the semifinals of the 5A State Soccer Tournament.
She’s motivated by both. Her optimism of a bigger and better senior year has been fueled by last year’s disappointment.
“Losing in the semifinals was devastating after how hard we worked to get that far but overall it motivated us to decide to work harder for next year,” said Meadows. “After the game a few of us were talking and we said we wanted to start early, start working out and training in the summer and not wait until a month or so before season. Some of us have already been working out with Coach (Borosvskis) in the weight room at the high school.”
Meadows started playing soccer as a 4-year-old. She’s currently competing on Texarkana Soccer Club’s travel squad.
“I cheer and I’m on the competition team for cheer but soccer is my main focus,” she said. “I enjoy soccer so much because it just brings me joy. The feeling of winning a game with the people I’ve worked so hard with is the best feeling ever. Club soccer has also allowed me to make so many new friendships that I will cherish forever.”
Meadows was an all-state midfielder at El Dorado last season, scoring 20 goals on just 55 shots with five assists. She’s learning a new position this summer.
“I play center midfield for the Lady Wildcats and outside wing for Texarkana Soccer Club,” she explained. “Both positions require both defense and offense and a lot of running but outside wing requires me to play on a different area of the field. I stay more central playing for the Lady Wildcats and I play more towards the sideline and make more runs on the outside playing the wing for Texarkana.”
For Meadows, competing in the summer is fine but her primary focus is sharpening her skills for the high school season.
“Of course winning is awesome but to me summer soccer is more about adding to my game and learning things to bring back to the high school season,” she said. “This summer I’m focusing on becoming stronger so I don’t get pushed off the ball as much. I want to be a more physical player and get to the point where I can play as well against a physical team as I can against a team who is not.
“I am very motivated for the upcoming season. Making it to the semifinals of state this year showed me that we can do it. It may take a little extra work and effort but if we all commit to doing that, we could potentially make it to the finals or win especially with only losing one starter. We will have almost the same exact team as last year. You don’t usually see that happen for a high school team. We already have so much chemistry so we will be picking up almost exactly how we left off.”