Women’s soccer, coach, have a historic year

Players from the Casper College Women’s Soccer team and their Head Coach Ammon Bennett have been awarded for what Bennett calls an “ … historic achievement … “

In only its second year, the team won the regular-season Region IX North Conference championship, the Region IX title game, and advanced to the West Plains District championship game, where they lost to the nation’s third-ranked team, the Seminole State College Lady Raiders 1-0. And, as Bennett notes, though the program was in its second year of existence, it was the Lady T-Birds’ first full season since the first year was greatly impacted by COVID-19.

During the season, the Lady T-Birds defeated the seventh-ranked Golden Eagles of Laramie County Community College, and the 10th ranked Northeast Community College Lady Hawks from Norfolk, Nebraska. This helped propel the new Lady T-Bird program to be ranked 14th nationally. All told, the team finished the season with a record of 13-5-1 and 7-1 conference.

With a strong season, Bennett was named the Region IX Coach of the Year. “Being named coach of the year is a reflection of great assistants in Jocelyn Norcross and Chris Stier and, of course, being blessed with great players. The achievement is certainly not about me,” said Bennett. “This team was a great example of being friends, having fun, and working hard, all with the goal of winning the conference and region titles. They set the standard for many teams to come,” he added.

Individually, several players were named All-Region IX, including Rebecca Swain, a freshman from Spanish Fork, Utah; Valeria Hernandez, a sophomore from Orem, Utah; and Sophia Henly, a sophomore from Farr West, Utah, to the first team. Yissel Navarro, a sophomore from West Valley City, Utah; Madeline Hernandez, a sophomore from Orem, Utah; Grace Conner, a freshman from Pleasant View, Utah were named to the second team. Kylie Spangler, a sophomore from Casper, was named an honorable mention.