Kellogg duo earns IML soccer honors
Shea Curran (left) and Taeya Sheppard were named to the IML all-league soccer team following their recent season. Photo by Josh McDonald
Kellogg High School juniors Shea Curran and Taeya Sheppard were named to the Intermountain League soccer all-league team after their season ended a few weeks ago.
The selections are made after the conclusion of the regular season by the coaches from each league team.
Neither Sheppard nor Curran took credit for their awards, but instead passed the praise off onto their teammates.
“We had a young team, and we weren’t super skilled across the field, but we made up for that by working as a team,” Sheppard said.
Curran had similar thoughts.
“Our team worked a lot better this year than it has in other years,” Curran said.
Despite Kellogg’s rough soccer season, the team found some good chemistry from their young core, which made the season much more successful as they move forward.
“Everyone on our team was really invested and worked very hard all year,” Curran said.
Both players gave their coach, Craig Petersen a lot of credit for the mental preparation and focus.
“Coach was great this year and he never got down on us,” Curran said. “He wants us to win every game, but it isn’t the end of the world if we don’t win every game. He focuses on what we did well and what we need to work on.”
“He isn’t a coach who is going to scream at you,” Sheppard said. “He watches what we do, and then shows us how to fix it, either in a game or during practice. He wants us to be able to see the mistakes we are making and then fix them ourselves.”
The season didn’t have a lot of specific highlights, but for the two leaders having a season where everyone worked together and played hard made the going a lot easier.
“We had no drama on this team,” Sheppard said. “We all got better throughout the year and we improved a lot so I think we are going to be even better next year.”
Curran agrees, but she would also like to see her teammates put in some work during their offseasons to keep improving.
“If we work on skills and gets those girls who put in a lot of effort last year to put in the same effort again,” Curran commented, “we will be very competitive next year.”