The Chelsea High School  soccer team faces a bit of a challenge this season after losing two games straight to D1 soccer teams. Some players are starting to consider how this could impact their morale and competitiveness, keeping in mind that Chelsea’s soccer team is a D2 team.

“Some of our teammates, they get down on themselves sometimes,” junior Maddox Blackmon-Straub said. “We try to encourage everyone to keep their heads up, but sometimes they just get in their heads, and it’s tough.”

Playing against larger schools is not only taxing mentally, it’s also very physically difficult for the players;  putting a physical strain as well as a mental strain on the players.

“Playing against a D1 team is pretty taxing, so you don’t go into your SEC games at full capacity,” senior Augustus Wehrly said.

In contrast, many of the soccer players focus more on the positive aspect of their two hard-fought losses to D1 teams.

“The games [vs D1] are played at a higher level than our other games, like Jackson and Northwest.” Blackmon-Straub said.

Although the team has not had the best of luck in the past few matches, team captain Wehrly believes it will benefit the team in the long run.

”I think the games help so we can really challenge ourselves,” Wehrly said. “I think it kind of allows us to see what we need to work on, and fix the mistakes that we’re making during a game and try to perfect a lot of our techniques.”