Senior Lorelei Keeney-Gomez is halfway through her second season playing soccer for the Barons. Keeney-Gomez started playing soccer at five years old, and with her background in club soccer, she is a critical player; currently, Keeney-Gomez firmly defends the left side of the field.
When Keeney-Gomez was a freshman, she made the Junior Varsity soccer team at B-CC and got pulled up to Varsity by the end of the season. Ultimately, the pressure from club soccer led her to decide not to return for her sophomore and junior years. “The coach then [Kurtz] said that if I missed a practice, I’d be kicked off the team, and my club team season is in the fall as well, so it was impossible not to miss a practice for high school.” For her Junior year, she was considering playing, but with all the academic stress, she knew she wouldn’t be able to balance it with school and club soccer overlapping. Keeny-Gomez decided to come back and play for the Barons her senior year, returning to varsity.
Keeney-Gomez enjoys practices, priorities, team bonding, and getting to know everyone. Not playing for the Barons for three years and coming back with a new coach was a change for Keeney-Gomez, but she’s been thriving. “[Coach Travis] gives good feedback and doesn’t automatically point out everything you do wrong or take you off the field if you make a mistake.” Keeney-Gomez shares how soccer has shaped her as a person: “It definitely has made me more mentally tough. If I make a mistake on the field when I was younger, I used to beat myself up about it and let it get to my head, but now, as I’ve grown, I accept it and forget about it, and I think that helps, and I can apply it to things outside of soccer.” Watch out for fierce player Lorelei Keeney-Gomez as the Barons’ regular season comes to an end.
