Seniors Harris Quintanilla, Aiden Powell, and John Milne have all had a great impact on both the CHS and Chelsea Club soccer programs. Yet, in their senior year, all three of them decided to leave the team. After being able to set up interviews with two of them this is what they have to say.

“The main reason I left was to work more and be able to have money before I get out of high school,” Quintanilla said. “[Also] because of the way [the varsity soccer coach] favors people, specifically the better players, it seems like he only really cares about them.”

The seniors claimed that the coach had a lot more of an impact on the player’s decision than originally thought. Of course, there were other reasons such as working and saving money, but the coaching staff came up in the majority of the interviews.

“Playing JV was much different from varsity because I was able to connect with [coach Jordan Jackson] more than the varsity coach,” Powell said. “In my view, if [Jackson] was the head coach, I might have kept playing.”

Even with there originally being 13 seniors and the number dropping to 10, the team was able to stay strong. They had a successful season, ranking second in the SEC white division. The seniors who left commented on the team’s success.

“I’m still proud of how their season is going,” Quintanilla said. “I think that they have a good team going and that they can go pretty far in the districts this year, possibly winning a district title.” 

Although the three players stopped playing, they wished current players the best and appreciated their time as teammates.

”I enjoyed playing with all of the team and being able to hang out with friends while playing a sport I enjoyed,” Powell said. “But it just wasn’t the right kind of thing to be a part of for me in my senior year.”