Girls' Soccer Athlete of the Year: Katelyn Vieira

Posted 6/24/14

Tom Flanders has no trouble recalling one of the defining moments of his Pilgrim girls’ soccer team’s season, and how much junior Katelyn Vieira was involved in making it happen.

“At …

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Girls' Soccer Athlete of the Year: Katelyn Vieira

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Tom Flanders has no trouble recalling one of the defining moments of his Pilgrim girls’ soccer team’s season, and how much junior Katelyn Vieira was involved in making it happen.

“At halftime of the Burrillville game, we played them the last game of the season and we beat them 1-0 on a second-half goal by her,” Flanders said. “And she basically said at halftime that she was going to score that goal. Against a team that hadn’t lost at home, to say something like that and then actually do it is pretty remarkable.”

But that wasn’t far from ordinary for Vieira, who was a junior captain for the Pats and finished third in Division II in scoring. She was balanced across the board – scoring 18 times and adding 11 assists – and Pilgrim advanced to the semifinals for the first time in years on the strength of her feet.

“The kid can score from anywhere on the field inside the 18,” Flanders said.

The Pats had an inexperienced team – other than Vieira – that was trying to live up to the lofty success of the past two Pilgrim squads, which had made the playoffs after strong regular seasons.

“It was extremely different this season,” Vieira said.

The Pats went 11-2-1 and won a playoff game, and part of the success can be attributed to the leadership of Vieira and her fellow captains. They held numerous captains practices, and tried to push the young group to the limit.

Now the focus is on the future. Heading into her senior year, the ultimate goal for Vieira and her team is to finish with a championship, one that it has been building toward since her freshman year. The team has already had some meetings, and preparing for next year starts immediately.

“We’ve been doing our research, looking at all the obstacles – teams moving up, teams moving down,” Vieira said. “We’re really optimistic.”

-K.P.

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