Seymour’s Lillie Wessel remembers when the coaching staff told her during her freshman season that she would be starting in the midfield.

She was as nervous as can be and couldn’t believe she got the nod over some of the seniors on the team.

Trinity Lutheran’s Kailene Cockerham remembers being a defender most of her life before joining an inexperienced Cougar team her freshman year, so the coaches moved her up on the pitch to help out the offense.

Three years later, both players, now seniors, recently wrapped up impressive campaigns where they thrived at their respective positions.

Due to their play this fall, Wessel and Cockerham have been named The Tribune’s girls soccer Co-Players of the Year.

Cockerham is coming off a season in which she netted 21 goals as Trinity’s forward to go along with five assists.

“I remember the coaches just always encouraging me to do my best and help the team improve as a leader,” Cockerham said.

Her transition to the offensive side of the ball was a necessity for Trinity to stay competitive.

Cockerham’s ability to score the ball was extremely impressive. For her career, she finished with 63 goals, which is the school record at Trinity.

She remembers her 50th one specifically. Heading into the match, all she needed was one goal to achieve it, and it was a big deal, but she tried not to think about it.

“I went into the game acting like it was a normal game,” Cockerham said. “I acted like it was another goal I could get.”

It came on a play where Cockerham just beat her defender one-on-one, and all that was left was the keeper. She drilled it at the far post, and it went in. Everyone went crazy after the goal.

“I’ve never really thought I could do it,” she said. “My coaches always believed in me and always gave me confidence.”

Cockerham started playing at the age of 8, where she began in the rec league in Seymour.

She has been talking to some colleges about continuing her career but is still undecided.

She currently is on Trinity’s girls basketball team, but needless to say, Cockerham made a tremendous impact on the soccer program, capping it off by a stellar senior season.

“It was exciting,” she said. “It was a combination of all of us working together. It was also bittersweet. It was difficult to leave the teammates I grew with and became family basically, but it all worked out for the best.”

As for Wessel, she was a four-year starter for the Owls, controlling the middle of the field.

This season, she scored seven goals to go along with five assists as the team captain.

“We had some tough games this season,” Wessel said. “It definitely wasn’t as easy this year with how many seniors we lost from last year. Everyone in our conference wanted to come for us. I feel like as the season went on, we started figuring out how to work better together.”

Seymour had a tough stretch where some of its main players were quarantined during big Hoosier Hills Conference games, but Wessel felt like the team bounced back nicely and adjusted to all of the challenges.

The seven goals she scored this season actually was the lowest in her career, but it was due to how much attention she got from opponents. Wessel felt like any time she touched the ball, she’d have two or three defenders already converging on her.

“I had to think quicker,” she said. “Before the ball was even at my feet, I almost had to know what I was going to do with it.”

But stats don’t do enough justice to solidify what kind of impact Wessel had on the field this season.

“Stats may not be astronomical, but we played six ranked teams (top 20 from 3A-2A), and Lillie was right there with the top players on those teams,” head coach Greg Musser said. “Don’t let the stats fool you, she is the engine that drives our team.”

Wessel felt like she took a big step in terms of leadership this season for the Owls.

“I had been in the center of the field in that leadership all four years,” she said. “This year, I knew I had to step up and kind of command where the other girls needed to be because we had so many young players.”

Wessel began playing soccer at the age of 4, and she just recently committed to continue her career at Anderson University.

She is currently playing club for Alliance FC, which has a mixture of Columbus, Center Grove and Bloomington players.

Much like Cockerham, Wessel’s final year was a bittersweet moment, too.

“I went into it thinking it could be the last two months of my soccer career ever,” she said. “It was bittersweet ending with some of those girls because I had been with them forever.”

But it was successful career from Wessel, capped off by a senior campaign where she commanded the attention of her teammates as well as her opponents. She grew into one of the best players on the pitch any time she stepped onto it.

“The main thing I would say grew over the four years that I played was definitely my confidence,” she said. “I started making smarter decisions once I started gaining confidence. I also learned making mistakes is OK, which helps keep your confidence up during a game.”

Remaining players on the girls soccer all-county team:

Camryn Sterling, Seymour, Sr.

Haley Westfall, Seymour, Sr.

Brooke Trinkle, Seymour, Jr.

Eliza Cash, Seymour, Sr.

Nicole Rebber, Seymour, Jr.

Elise Hartung, Seymour, So.

Emma Myers, Trinity Lutheran, Jr.

Kathryn Whitmore, Trinity Lutheran, Jr.