Judge Memorial Catholic High School: Girls soccer team wins 3A State Championship

IC photo courtesy of Judge Memorial Catholic High School

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The Judge Memorial Catholic High School girls soccer team celebrates winning the 2007 3A Soccer State Championship title Oct. 20. Their team theme was to be extraordinary.

SALT LAKE CITY — With the score 0-0 and just under five minutes left in the final soccer game, Judge Memorial junior Maddie Cartwright saw an opportunity. As soccer players were battling for possession of the ball, the ball rolled out and Cartwright kicked it scoring a goal. The goal gave the Judge Memorial Bulldogs a 1-0 win over Juan Diego Catholic High School and the 3A Soccer State Championship Title Oct. 20 at Woods Cross High School.

"At the beginning of the season the girls made a T-shirt® that said 10-20-07," said Judge Memorial’s Coach Jim Ngo, in his a first year as the Bulldog head coach. "That shows they had their eyes on this championship from the very beginning. Judge has a long history of being successful in soccer, and these girls have been among those strong teams."

Juan Diego Coach Scott Platz said Judge was a strong opponent.

"There is a respectful rivalry between the schools and the game was well played and clean. Judge got it going and went on to win," said Platz. "It was hard losing in the final game for the championship, especially when it was our second year in a row."

Ngo said the season had a slow start for a couple of reasons. There were about seven potential varsity starters who were not on the field as the result of injuries, or because they chose not to play this year.

"We started with a lot of adversity," said Ngo. "Two starters were injured before the season began, and our top scorer became injured half-way through the first game. It was also difficult for the girls to adjust to a new head coach and to learn to take direction from me. The style that I coach is different from what they were used to.

"I wanted to take the trademark of Judge soccer, which is a lot of heart, enthusiasm, and a lot of will to win, and add that to my style without losing anything, and that took some time" said Ngo. The way I approach the game is a much more team oriented, possession style of play.

"The style I taught them was to control the ball and control the game," said Ngo. "We did not want to give the ball back to the other team once we had possession. It is a much more deliberate, patient style of attack."

Ngo said this style of play represents a more beautiful game where the girls utilize good ball-handling skills and good tactical decision-making skills. They used those skills to decide where and when to pass the ball in a more methodical way. The game becomes more cerebral than just physical play. But that style takes a long time because there are 11 players on the field. As a team, they have to try to get those 11 players thinking the same way.

"By the end of the season, if you were to ask each of the players what our goals and strategies were, they would answer in a very similar way," said Ngo. "They saw the benefits of playing this way and were achieving success, which fueled their desire to seek more success."

Ngo said the team’s theme this year was to "Be extraordinary and rise above the ordinary." He wanted them to play a soccer game that was beautiful to play and more fun to watch than what they thought they were capable of playing.

"I do not know if they started off thinking they could do it, but I know they finished thinking they could," said Ngo. "They started to believe in themselves. Judge Memorial came into the tournament ranked number four and beat three number one teams.

"We will be losing nine seniors this year, and it will be difficult to replace them on the field as well as their leadership off the field," said Ngo. "But I am confident our younger players will rise to the occasion because they have learned from those seniors and they know what it means to represent Judge."

Juan Diego’s record was 15-4 this season. They, too, will lose nine seniors this year.

"We have a good solid young team and we should be in the championship games again next year," said Platz. "We won our region title for the fourth year in a row. Our team was led by seniors Heidi Labbs Johnson and Olivia Wee, our two team captains, who provided a lot of team leadership."