The Brazoswood Lady Bucs have established themselves as one of the area’s top girls soccer programs under the guidance of Head Coach Kim Blank.
A big word we use here is purpose, we do everything with purpose, we don’t come out here just to go through practice, we come out here to get better, if it’s in the weight room, if it’s conditioning, whatever we do it’s with a purpose and it’s to improve every single day and to get better and I think that’s what makes our program special
Blank is in her second stint leading the Brazoswood soccer program. She led the Lady Bucs to three district titles more than a decade ago, and is in her third season back at Brazoswood after taking time off to raise a family. Naturally, the Lady Bucs have won back-to-back district titles since Blank’s return.
Kaitlyn Futschik, Jr Midfielder: She’s been really good, makes the program like a unit, we’re all there for each other, and she’s just really big on teamwork and effort and family
Meghan Schwertner, Jr Sweeper :50 She really helped me become the player I am today, without her I would not have as much confidence as I do now
Aaliyah Casas, SR Striker: She’s been really great, she’s a mother-figure to all of us on the team, she’s there for us when we need her, and even on the field she motivates us and pushes us to do better and as you can see it’s done really good for the soccer program
Blank’s impact extends beyond the soccer field. The Lady Bucs are highly involved in their local community, volunteering their time for everything from service projects to youth soccer camps.
Tricia Heckendorn, SR Striker: It means a lot bc we really like helping people out and being able to help everyone in the community
Aaliyah Casas, SR Striker: We do a lot of community service with the youth and it’s a really great experience, we get to meet young kids and be there for them, and I feel like they look up to us
We really believe in service in our community and getting out in our community and working with the youth in our community, if it’s through youth soccer or volunteering or helping, and although that might not have a lot to do with soccer, it has a lot to do with the kids and building character and building team unity
That time spent together away from soccer has helped strengthen the bond of this team. After losing 10 seniors a year ago, that’s been even more important this year. The Lady Bucs only feature four seniors this season, but that quartet has stepped up to lead this team.
They’re fantastic young ladies, they were hard every single day, they’ve really bought into the positive culture we have here as Lady Bucs...they’re special young ladies, they lead by example every single day…The younger players see those things and they want to work just as hard, they want to live up to those expectations, and so that’s been a huge positive thing for our program, is our leadership from our seniors every single year
Brazoswood faced some early setbacks this season while playing a difficult non-district schedule, but those challenges have helped this squad make great strides over the last month and have the Lady Bucs ready to try to win their third consecutive district crown.
Tricia Heckendorn, SR Striker: It’s a lot of young ppl so we’re still learning each other and how we play, and we had to find our chemistry again and try to build that back up, and I think we’ve gotten a lot better than we were in the beginning
Kaitlyn Futschik, Jr Midfielder: We were struggling a bit in the beginning but that’s just bc we have a lot of new ppl so we haven’t played together but now that we’ve played a few games we’re really learning each other and I think we have a lot of potential
Meghan Schwertner, Jr Sweeper: I think we’re starting to work together well and really starting to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and what kind of balls to play to our forwards or how to mark up on our man, so once we start learning those things that we’re learning in the preseason, we’re gonna be really successful