Receiving individual team awards at the Seymour girls soccer banquet on Tuesday were, from left, Gabby Guzman, Sam Cardenas, Haley Westfall, Elise Hartung, Lillie Wessel and Camryn Sterling.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
The Seymour girls soccer team gathered in the cafeteria Tuesday night to celebrates its 2021 season.
The Owls went 7-10-1, and head coach Greg Musser said that wasn’t really indicative of the growth the team had this season.
“The growth that we had throughout that adversity and the ability for our kids to just jump on the field and not miss a beat, I was extremely proud of that,” Musser said. “As a coaching staff, we were extremely proud of that.”
By the end of the season, Musser believes they started to become the team they thought they would be.
“I was extremely pleased with the team that we became at the end of the year,” he said.
Musser then handed out his individual awards.
The most improved award for Seymour went to Elise Hartung.
“She was very pivotal in filling a role we needed on our team,” Musser said. “She jumped right into a centerback role that was hard to fill. She took all that coaching and made giant leaps for us. She only came off the field when we were up numerous goals and wanted to give her a break. I was really impressed with how much Elise grew over the last year.”
The coaches award was given to Haley Westfall. Musser said Westfall would always come off of the field and ask what she could do better, and she also pulled younger players to the side and gave them advice.
“I think this was a pretty easy call for us,” Musser said.
The next award was the top team player award, and that went to Sam Cardenas. She played a variety of positions for the Owls and even played JV a couple of times when they needed some more players.
“No matter what we asked, she did,” Musser said. “She would learn from anything and everything that we were coaching her.”
For the MVP award, it was voted on by the team. The JV MVP award went to Gabby Guzman. For varsity, there was actually a tie. The co-MVPs for the varsity team were Camryn Sterling and Lillie Wessel.
“It’s just a testament to the talent and the belief our team had,” Musser said. “Nobody ran away from anything. All votes were close because our team believed in each other.”
Earning HHC all-conference honorable mention was Westfall, and the two HHC all-conference first team members were Wessel and Sterling.
The final awards Musser handed out were for academic all-state. The Owls had an impressive 11 players make academic all-state this season: Maddy Busby, Eliza Cash, Nicole Rebber, Jessica Hougland, Kate Connell, Wessel, Sterling, Maely Schrader, Grace Schrader, Brooke Trinkle and Ellen Zabor.
The Owls then had all of the seniors give speeches to cap off the event and put a bow on the their high school careers and the 2021 soccer season.