GHHS Soccer: Boys vs Girls
The GHHS girls soccer team champion stats.
Having a community that makes you feel respected and seen in a sport can truly change how your whole team cooperates on and off the field and everyone's overall commitment to the team. Have you wondered what the community is truly like for both boys and girls soccer?
Before understanding the general information about soccer, here is some history about the sport. Modern soccer originated in England in 1863, and there were many ball kicking games before modern soccer was created. One game called Cuju, which was played in China during the Han dynasty around 206 BC. The sport officially began when the Football Association was founded in London on October 26, 1863. Representatives from the association came together to set unified rules, these rules banned handling the ball and separated soccer from rugby.
To further understand soccer, you have to know some general rules and information about the sport. Soccer is a game typically played on a field inside or outside. Games consist of two teams with 11 players. The objective of the game is to score as many goals as you can. A standard game lasts around 90 minutes but is split into halves, each lasting 45 minutes, with a half time being 15 minutes.
In professional soccer the referee adds extra time because they do not stop the clock for fouls or pauses. Players can get either a yellow card or red card during the game. The yellow card is given as a formal warning for rule violations. While a red card results in immediate ejection from the game. Those are the general rules and information about the sport.
After interviewing GHHS freshman team member, Libby Otto, we got a better understanding of what really goes on during team practices and games. Libby states,”Practice times occur from 3:15-5:30 pm everyday after school, other than Fridays. The weight room is normally 2 times a week, 45 minutes.” Before joining high school soccer, Libby started playing soccer when she was 4, and joined club soccer at 9. She plays the position of the 10 or striker. She is a starter on varsity. She is inspired to attend Notre Dame for college and sees her future involving soccer.
Next for boys soccer we decided to interview Sam Christ to get a different perspective of the soccer community. Sam states, ”Practice times go from 6:00-8:00 pm everyday other than Fridays. Weight room normally occurs once a week for about 45 minutes." Before committing to the high school soccer team, Sam played on the middle school team the last few years. Also he played on Grandview FC leading up to middle school. He regularly practices extra on the field to improve his skills.
Sam has been playing soccer for around four years. His position is right and left midfield and he plays on the JV soccer team. He says, ”High school soccer has a better community and better coach than the middle school team.” Sam also said that he felt unwelcome at the beginning of the soccer season but he has gotten closer with the team and no longer feels that way. Sam wants his future to involve science and he wants to possibly attend Ohio State University.
The GHHS boys soccer champion stats.
Our interviews allowed us to get a better sense of the soccer communities. The similarities we found between both girls and boys soccer include practice times, game times, weight room and extra practices for improvement. The differences we found was the number of years that everyone had played soccer before high school. We also found that both Libby and Sam want to take two totally different paths after high school soccer, yet both paths have a very high success rate.
Now we will be sharing the average player count from the past years. Starting with Boys JV and varsity, the average player count from the past 5 years is 40. The girls JV and Varsity average is 28. By the numbers provided you can tell that the boys soccer community over the past 5 years is almost twice as big as the girls. The number of girls nationwide that go to college for soccer is about 8% and the number of boys that go to college for soccer is about 6%. We looked into it more and in the past years GHHS has had two girls go to college for soccer. Nataile Smith in 2024 went to Otterbein University in Westerville to play soccer. Maci Tew in 2026 went to the University of Pittsburgh to play on their D1 soccer team. In the past two years only one boy has gone to college and played soccer. Mateo Holliman in 2025 went to Marietta College to play D3 soccer.
Have you ever wanted to play on the Grandview Heights High school soccer team? Or are you interested in helping out in any way? Well there are many ways to get involved on the field and off. If you want to volunteer you can sign up on the volunteer list for the snack bar or bring food to away games. Those are just a few ways you can help out. Emails about volunteering and soccer are generally sent out on websites like Parentsquare or through direct emails. If you are interested in joining the soccer team in high school you should reach out to the coaches or the head of the athletic department. If you have any questions about volunteering or anything else, you could also contact the coaches or email the front office.
Overall, our interview outcomes show that girls soccer has a better community than boys, because of the size of the team and engagement of the coaches and the overall welcoming culture. Therefore girls soccer also has better college and career opportunities after their high school soccer years. And is more welcoming when you first start high school soccer.