The Pampa Harvester and Lady Harvester Soccer teams have received some celebrity attention in words of encouragement, from Heather O’Reilly and Mariano Truijilo.
The teams competed this past Tuesday in Midland for Area. Both teams played against the Stephenville Honeybees, the Lady Harvesters lost to them team 8-1 while the Harvesters won 7-1. The Lady Harvesters became the first team all season to score first on Stephenville, still an accomplishment over the loss.
“We went in with a strategy, and fought hard but unfortunately the girls fell short and it didn’t end how we wanted. We only had 2 days to work on strategy before we played.” Coach Hugo Aguillon Said.
Although the season has come to an end for the Lady Harvesters, the Harvesters are set to play San Elizario in Midland, Friday April 1st. The Harvesters are hoping to come out victors of this game, as last season they were knocked out of playoffs in the first game from this same team.
“I told the boys, this is a rematch. Let’s get in there and try to win.” Aguillon said.
Before the Area game, the Lady Harvesters received a special message of support from Heather O’Reilly, a 3 time gold Olympic medalist, World Cup winner and former player of the US Women’s National Team. The Harvesters weren’t left out as they too received a message from former Mexican Soccer Player/ Fox Sports Analyst & Commentator Mariano Trujillo before the first playoff game.
The shout-outs came about through the popular app Cameo. Cameo is an app that allows patrons to pay for messages from celebrities or famous athletes that have joined the account to participate.
“When we went into playoffs last season, my wife and I wanted to get a famous soccer player to give the students a shout out but it didn’t work out,”Aguillon said. “I looked on Cameo last year, but there weren’t many soccer players on there, but when I got on this year, there was way more and we were able to get one.”
The premise is to get some words of encouragement and motivate the team. A tradition Aguillon has used throughout his time as a coach. The team often listens to the words of Eric Thomas, who is a motivational speaker, once a week.
“It always means more if you hear these people say your name or your teams name, so that’s why we did it. When I got the videos in, I was too excited and I couldn’t wait till the next morning practice to show them, so I posted it to the Facebook page and told the girls to go check it out.” Aguillon said. “It came at a perfect time for both teams and it was very motivating for them.”
In the video for the girls, O’Reilly called out the captains of the Lady Harvesters team encouraging them to hold the team together and focus on the task at hand.
“I wish she could’ve called all the girls out to give them all a shout out but the only have a minute for the video.” Aguillon said.
Both of the former professional soccer players focused on telling the team to enjoy the game and have fun, and the goals and win would come with it. Helping to remind them to focus on the memories and the moment, not just the win.
The Harvesters will play for regional quarter finals and hope to advance on further. The game will be live-streamed through the “Pampa Athletics” Youtube channel. The videos to both teams can be found on the Facebook pages, PHS Lady Harvesters Soccer and Harvester Soccer.
