Cassidy Gann Has been leading team practice and conditioning since mid-fall through morning and evening practice, through practice and drills in the ox gym to the rain and cold on the field all in hopes of giving her all this year and making it her most successful season yet.
Gann is a returning varsity captain along with her other returning co-captain Taylor Reed. Gann’s been playing soccer since she was 5 years old this will be her 13th year playing
This will be her third year playing varsity soccer, Shaun Owens, the head coach of the soccer team said, “Cassidy is a silent leader. She works really hard and practices and sets an example by how hard she works. She communicates with her peers in a positive way and I think they really do look up to her.”
Gann plays center-back however, she said her main focus is center mid. “I’ve been playing center mid for most of my high school career,” Gann said. “It’s a lot of running around the ball and stuff like that, but that’s my position. I like playing there.”
Gann has been coached by Owens for a long time he said, “Cassidy has been an exceptional, tremendous player I mean for example she got head-butted in the face last year and had to get nine stitches and within the following week she was playing. She just doesn’t want to quit. She just wants to play, she loves the game. And again, that’s why her teammates look up to her because she has many things that keep her going in and out of the game.”
Gann expects the team to do pretty well this year, she said, “We lost four seniors last year. But we’re keeping a lot of starters. Last year we had 16 seniors who left and we had to reorganize our team this year we only had 4 seniors who left. This will make it much easier to fill the roles that no longer have players.”
The Soccer teams started training early Gann said, “I know everyone who is an upperclassman has gone through being a freshman, so I know it’ll be fine. My sister is actually a freshman this year. So I know her and she’s trying out for soccer, and a couple of her friends. I think they’ll be fine.”
Rhonda Ireland a History teacher had Cassidy sophomore year and has her again this year for IB history. Ireland said, “She is such a hard worker, both in academics and in soccer, She’s not only athletically gifted but she’s academically gifted too and is such a kind person. She’s a teacher’s dream because she’s just such a hard worker. She’s always engaged, for example, her sophomore year when I first met her, I knew she was super sharp, but also very quiet. she’s not a very loud person at all. But has such a big presence because of how hard she works, whether it’s on the soccer field or in the classroom.”
Cassidy is planning to go to Truman college to study nursing. “I have a scholarship for academics along with an athletic scholarship too. I’m wanting to do nurse practitioner type stuff, I’m going to try the nursing program and then see how I feel from there, I can do pre-med with the nursing program and then go to med school, There’s something called a CRNA, which is a nurse emphasis. I’m just going to see how the nursing program goes and seeing how I feel in four years from now because I know it’s going to change.”
Gann expects her final high school year of soccer to turn out great, she said, “I’m looking forward to what’s next for me and what’ll change.”
