Jenny
Wood graduated from Windham High School last spring and has now found a home at
the University of Maine at Machias on its women’s soccer team. Its nationally
ranked women’s soccer team. This season the Division III Clippers were
undefeated in their conference.
Wood,
a centerback defenseman starter, is playing on an athletic scholarship.
“The
physicality is a lot different (from high school). I’ve never been so beat up
in a season before,” she said. “The ball moves a lot faster.”
When
she went to Machias, she went there with a small group of soccer players who
played on the same local club team she did. They’ve become like a family, Woods
said. “The adjustment has been a lot better than I thought it would go,” she
added.
She
has spent the fall traveling to games often playing Friday, Saturday, Sunday
and Monday in a row before having a day off. “We were on the road a lot,” she
said. The furthest away she had to travel was for their national tournament
game in West Virginia. The team was fourth in the nation and ranked seventh on
power points when the team arrived at the national tournament. However, they
lost their first game in penalty kicks to Penn State College. The second game
they played they won 5 to 0 against Paul Smith’s College. “We came out really
strong,” Wood said. 
“A
lot of people under estimate Machias because they say it’s in the middle of
nowhere. There are a lot of nice people
here. You forget that it’s a small town because you’re so busy with sports. We
want you to come up here. I love it up here,” Wood said.
Soccer
is now over for the season, but Wood is looking forward to winter pickup games
and then spring practices and tournaments.
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