Up, up and away

While catching footage of the men's team practicing, I happened to capture a feat that doesn't happen in soccer often.

Forward Stephan Mongu kicked the ball over a defender's head while coming off the sideline.

I didn't notice it while I was shooting but after he made it, one of the coaches and approximately three players came ecstatically toward me and asked if I had filmed it.

I rewound the tape and showed them a little bit of what I had captured up to that point and sure enough it was there. They were all telling me that it was very difficult to pull off and they hadn't seen anything like it. They were glad that I was there to capture it.

Mongu said that it was his first time pulling off the move and it was impulsive rather than a planned move.

"(Kicking the ball over his head) was the only way I could do it to get around the corner," Mongu said. "It was just me being creative."

He hasn't pulled off the move in a game yet, but said that he plans to before the season is over.

Here's footage of the kick. You can hear the "oohs" and "aahs" from the team. It goes by very fast!

A Scoring Machine

The first assignment in my project was the slideshow on Monique Cisneros(left). I chose to do it on her because she's a prolific scorer and one of the team's captains.

She's so great of a scorer that as of press time, not only does she lead the Falcons in scoring, she's first in the state in the category. She set a school record six goals earlier this season in a game against College of the Desert. The Falcons won by a score of 18-0.

I went to get some photos of her in the game against L.A. Harbor. Though I got there toward the end of the first half, I figured I'd still have an opportunity to get photos of her since soccer games are so long.

However, she scored four goals in the first half and didn't play at all in the second. So there went my photo opportunity.

But one of the Talon Marks staff members was there, so he let me use some of the photos that he took. This explains why most of the photos in my slideshow are those of her at practice.

I was told by another reporter that she wouldn't be that good of an interview, but she gave me some good quotes. She seemed very enthused to be interviewed.

The slideshow came out very well. Check it out!

Gender rules

I decided to do my project on both teams because both have a history of success and I wanted to see if the teams could keep it going this year.

It would be easy to devote my project to just the women's team, since it is more successful, but I think the men have a compelling story as well, with them falling short of winning the state title last year after winning the previous season.

My plans are to present on how the teams interact with each other.

From my observations, the men's & women's team do hang out with each other and support each other.

Sometimes before games, the men will sit on a bench and watch the women play for a few minutes before getting ready for their own game.

Afterward, some of the team members usually stick around to hang out and talk about life.

Sometimes after the men's team wins, some of the women go onto the field and form a little arch for the men to go over.

The two teams are cool with each other, however not too close.

Players say coaches prefer if the two teams don't talk too much before games. They're less likely to get distracted.

"(Men's head coach) Benny (Artiaga) says don't talk to the (women), 'cause they're the devil," said midfielder Salvador Meledrez half-jokingly. "He tells all us just to concentrate on soccer."