Massapequa High School has always been known for its extremely strong and competitive sports teams. Year after year, fall, winter, and spring teams secure repeated championships, leaving other schools in the dust. Massapequa has always been the team to beat. Schools either look forward to their chance to play the powerhouse, or they fear seeing Massapequa on the opposite side of the field or the court. Even just taking a few points, winning a set, or scoring a goal against Massapequa is considered a huge feat for some schools. However, the reputation that Massapqua has built for itself takes its toll on the very athletes that play on these powerful teams. In order to keep up Massapequa’s reputation, each team has to try their best to follow in the footsteps of the years prior. This can be difficult when years prior, teams have won Long Islands, or even New York State Championships and now a whole new team has to step up and carry on the legacy.
Last year, the girls fall teams all had incredible seasons. Girls’ varsity soccer won the New York State Championship, girls’ varsity volleyball won the Long Island Championship, girls’ varsity field hockey won the county championship, and a few girls from the Massapequa varsity swim team qualified for the state finals. They all dominated their conference and set up a legacy for years to come. Now that the fall season has rolled around again, the pressure is on for these same teams to repeat the accomplishments of last year.
In the fall of 2021, the girls varsity volleyball team took their season by storm. They won LIC’s without an issue and finished their season as second in the state. This team had an amazing season, their winnings much attributed to the eleven seniors. All starters on the team were seniors, a few of which had been on the varsity team since 9th grade. Now that all these seniors have graduated, the new girls volleyball team of 2022 is mostly composed of juniors, many of whom are in their first year on the varsity team. The team of last year left huge shoes to fill, which puts some pressure on the team of 2022. Senior caption, Erin Gannon, gave insight on how the new team is feeling. According to Erin, girls on the team, specifically the seniors and captains, “feel pressure to live up to the leadership the seniors showed last year”. Pressure also arose from the fact that the starting six of last year “had been playing together for years and had a certain type of chemistry on the court”. The new seniors had to take on leadership roles in order to unite the team since many hadn’t played together before. While the girls have a different situation on the court than last year, Erin believes that “all of the players this year are very strong individually and we just needed time to gel together”. This proved to be true, as the team of 2022 has defeated every team in their conference and are heading into playoffs with more confidence than ever.
Similar to the girls volleyball team of 2021, Massapequa girls varsity soccer had an exceptional season last year. They went undefeated, sweeping their conference as well as taking the county championship followed by the Long Island championship with ease. Then came the New York state championship, where they secured first place. Just like volleyball, the team had a majority of seniors who made up most of the starting line up. Junior Holly Krieg says these seniors “held key roles in the success of the team”, and “ without the leadership from all the seniors that we had last year, there is a bit of impact on the team”. It is expected that since the leadership of last year took the team so far, that an absence of those seniors would affect the team. Holly says that “there are a lot of new girls that make us a young team, and although some of us are very experienced, we still have to work 10x harder.” The new soccer team of 2022 has worked extremely hard and has also been undefeated in their conference yet again. Without the seniors of last year, the team has found new leadership within itself and proven it has what it takes to continue the winning streak.
The Massapequa girls volleyball and soccer teams have had to live up to legacies of last season, consequently placing extra pressure on both teams. However, these teams are on track to exceed any expectations set for them. Wanting to fill the large shoes of last year has motivated the players to work even harder than previous years and prove themselves and their team. Athletes from both teams have agreed that any pressure they may feel has only brought their teams closer together off the field and the court. When teams are closer, trust is built between players leading to more successful teams. Now we just have to wait and see how far they will go!