This year the Trojans girls soccer team is looking for that one player to push them over the top to lead them to another state championship. This girl will either lead the team in scoring or be the best defender. What if that girl is not one, but two girls?
Lady Trojans soccer has a long tradition of sisters playing on the team. There were the Sladek sisters, the Ortega sisters and the Young-Chaffee sisters, to name a few.
Now there are the Friesz sisters, Jessica and Cierra. The two girls give the team a boost on defense. Jessica Friesz is a holding mid and Cierra Friesz is a defender.
Trojans Coach Pam Larmouth thinks highly of both of them.
“I am very pleased to have these girls on the team,” she said. “Both girls are very motivated and full of heart. I enjoy working with them both. It has been great having them on the team.”
Jessica is a senior at 17 and Cierra is a junior at 16..
Both sisters have been playing soccer since they were 9 years old and are both veteran players on this year’s varsity team.
“We had just moved here and we were trying new things and we both liked it,” Jessica Friesz said.
“Yeah, we moved to town and soccer was the only thing to do,” Cierra Friesz added.
Jessica Friesz commented that she also played other sports but she and her sister always enjoyed the sport of soccer above all.
“It’s a contact sport and I like the fact that it’s a team sport,” Jessica Friesz said.
The senior player likes to give it her all for any position she plays on the soccer field, as was evident last year when she played goalie for the team.
“Jessica stepped up last year and volunteered to be our goalie,” the coach said. “She did a fabulous job.”
Cierra Friesz especially enjoys the contact aspect. She takes defense to the next level and loves the physical endurance needed to play the defender position.
“I just enjoy taking other girls down,” Cierra Friesz said smiling.
Her coach loves her passion for defense.
“Cierra will be starting at defense this year and has big shoes to fill since Brittany Klenczar left, but she has the drive, the skill and the aggression to do the job.”
The two sisters enjoy playing the game on the same team and on the same field. They said when they play together they seem to be able to read each other’s minds on the field and just know where the other one will be on the field.
“It’s fun to work so well together,” Jessica Friesz said. “It’s cool counting on my sister. She often passes to me. People always ask us if we fight at home, and the answer is no. We get along like good friends and we talk to each other like friends.”
Perhaps it’s that connection they have off the field that fuels the connection on the field.
Cierra didn’t think it was strange to be friends with her sister and when she was asked why she gets along so well with her older sister, she replied, “I guess we get along so well because I do what she asks me to do,” she said. “I like the fact that she sets up my life for me. If something doesn’t work out well for her I know not to do it.”
Their mother, Carrie Friesz, backed up what her kids said.
“They never fight,” she said.
She attributes this to the game of soccer. Mom said it’s the intensity of the game that has shaped her daughters and made them the disciplined young ladies they are today.
“I really don’t think my girls would be where they are today without soccer,” mom said. “I think soccer has a lot to do with the fact they are on the honor roll, work out at the gym, and just work hard at everything. They would be totally different people without soccer.”
The hard work on the field means that the girls hit the soccer field during the season and off, and they get to spend long hours with their father, Jod Friesz, because he coaches them. Soccer has transformed the family into a soccer family and the girls said if it were not for soccer they wouldn’t get to spend a lot of time with their dad.
“Dad doesn’t have much down time,” Jessica Friesz said. “But because he coaches us in soccer, we have so many memorable times on the field.”
Even their mother has started to coach soccer and referee soccer at the AYSO. Carrie Friesz said her soccer knowledge has increased to the point that the whole family talks soccer now.
“All we talk about is soccer and our favorite football team, the Seahawks,” Jessica Friesz said, not complaining.
Their mom added, “The sport has brought us closer together as a family.”