The end of an era: last of Flagler’s women’s soccer historic 2019 team to graduate this year 

By: Nadia Fung 

Four years is all you have—four chances to turn your dreams in reality. Be the first to score a goal, or save every shot faced in the finals of the national tournament. The only pressure you should have, is the pressure to make sure when you step onto that field you give it your all. Time flies by when you’re having fun winning… so keep winning and the memories and trophies will come.

The bodies of two 5^th year seniors playing for the Flagler Women’s Soccer team can only take so much. After a long, tiring, and hard-fought 4-3 win against a solid, USC Beaufort team at home, my roommate Elizabeth and I collapsed on the couch and let out an almost ten-second sigh.

As Elizabeth and I reflect on the couch, this is the end of our soccer careers. We along with hundreds of players that have gone through this program, prioritized this team for as long as we were here for.   

We hold such high standards and expectations for ourselves and each other. We beat ourselves up when we let teams get a glimpse of hope to beat us, because we have the talent to crush team’s souls.  

Teams all over the country set their goal for the season to be “Let’s beat Flagler this year!”, while our goal as a team for the past four years has been “Let’s win a national tournament!”

Five years ago, winning a National Tournament was only a faint dream that had a slim chance of becoming reality.

However, as two of the few remaining players who had experienced that remarkable journey, it was a challenge to instill the same winning mentality in newcomers to a nationally ranked team.

In 2019, our team’s magical run saw a record of twenty-three wins, one tie, and a single loss in the Final Four tournament game, setting a new standard in Flagler Women’s Soccer history. 

When I committed, I was drawn into the team’s dynamic with each other. Their energies bouncing off each other in the locker-rooms, while still being able to put in a solid tackle at practice to keep the level high, while laughing about it later.  

But as a freshman, walking onto the pitch for the first time, if someone told me that at the end of this season this team would make it as far as the Final Four match, although not victorious, but grateful for the hard work each and every one of the players and staff put in to make this achievement possible.

I would have responded with “Well isn’t that what we dream of? To make it as far as possible, knowing we put everything we had into each game.”  

This year’s team was something special, with unparalleled individual talent. Yet, we hadn’t fully unlocked the potential of blending our skills to capture a national tournament title.

The pressure of being a top team is there, as we continue to strive towards winning, but that is why soccer is not an individual sport; we have each other’s backs on and off the field to help fight those pressures. 

We were more than just a team; we were a family.

Spending six days a week together meant occasional clashes, but just like in any family, we knew we would always come back together.

We had our fights, our tears, but most importantly, our unwavering love for each other. Not many teams could call themselves a family, and that’s what set us apart. 

It is the unforgettable moments like the historic 2019 victory against our rivals, Columbus State. That win, after years of defeat, meant the world to everyone.

I never understood the magnitude of how much this win meant to everyone until an upperclassman came up to me and explained the history.  

I realized that coming to Flagler was not just about competing; it was about forming lifelong friendships and cherishing memories like this. 

Memories, snippets of game-winning goals, and many trophies that followed are all that remained to remind us how we felt during those extraordinary moments. 

It will always be the small thing I’ll remember— guessing what Gatorade flavor we’ll have before games, seeing my jersey, socks, and shorts laid perfectly in my locker, and huddling in as a team getting hype to go out onto the field and play like it’s my last, because it could just be. 

As Elizabeth and I reflect on the couch, this is the end of our soccer careers. We along with hundreds of players that have gone through this program, prioritized this team for as long as we were here for.  

To go out on a high would be magical, to share that moment of lifting a trophy with this team would make all the sacrifices, injuries, and tears shed (happy or sad) all worth it.