This year is the first year that the iSchool has allowed a soccer team! If that is not already surprising enough, the team has been doing very well and is on their way to the league championships! Alex Juma, a senior, is apart of the team and feels ecstatic that he gets to be included in the first ever soccer team at the iSchool: “I am very glad that the iSchool finally accepted our request for a soccer team, and I am happy to say that we have not been letting the school down in achieving the best that we can.”

Mr. Crea, the coach, takes the team of 15 players to Williamsburg in Brooklyn to practice for their weekly games. The team is preparing constantly to compete against other schools. They have a total of eight games in the fall and another eight games in the spring.

Despite the several number of vigorous games, the team has a great amount of sportsmanship and is doing very well for their first season. The commissioner of the league has even praised them!

“It is really amazing that the team just started and is winning several games, Mr. Crea was really proud of us,” said Juma. This is true that Mr. Crea was really proud, in fact, he was so proud that students like Nick Leif and Marcely Estevez reported that he could not stop talking about the victories all class period. “I even heard from other students that he kept talking about it during their class period too,” said Estevez.

Juma, who has been a soccer fan since he was young, thinks that it is important for the school to allow and encourage its students to be innovators, creative thinkers and to express themselves in what they think should be done in order to improve the school in unique ways.

Of course for a student who thinks so liberal, Juma’s only response to the question of, “what made you want to join the team?” is “I wanted to try something new, and since the iSchool is open to letting their students’ minds be heard, I decided to take advantage of that and push for the iSchool’s first soccer team because I think it is yet another way to bring students at this school closer together in a fun and active way.”

It is clear that Alex Juma and the rest of the soccer players had a core belief to establish something historical in the iSchool even if it was only with a sports team. It was also no surprise that the iSchool is 100% behind them and is rooting for them as they continue to make our school proud with their victories. We can only hope that students will continue to join the soccer team and keep the iSchool’s team alive in the future.