1996 WHS YELLOWJACKETS LINE-UPS and other headcanons
okay in honor of the FIFA world cup final yesterday (WOOO SPAIN) I have shitposted my little highschool soccer heart on this stupid show. yes I realize there have been amazing posts (like this one) already made about what positions and jerseys the girls had, but I have made another one. lots of nerding out on here.
so in case you weren't aware, a soccer team is composed of 18-22 players. 11 are on the field at a time: 1 is the goalie and the other 10 are arranged into three categories: forward, midfield, and defense.
simplified: forwards are the offense, and score goals. midfielders run around a lot, steal the ball, get the ball up the field, and occasionally score goals. defensive players stay further back near the goalie and steal the ball and kick it or pass it up the field to get it away from the other team and back on track.
to be honest i wish this show had more soccer but oh well. the 90's set was more expensive, yada yada.
option A: 4-3-3
notes: in this one, the wingers (nat and allie) would stay mostly high on the field, shooting on goal as well as assisting for Jackie. Mari and Tai’s primary job would be to set up for Jackie, and Shauna’s would be to intercept and cover most of the time. Tai or Shauna, depending on the play, are probably going to get most contact, assuming the game goes their way. i like this lineup the best for them, though others have suggested 4-4-2, of which my take is below.
Forward
Jackie: #9, Striker, Captain
Nat: #7, Right Winger
Allie: #11, Left Winger
Midfield
Mari: #10, Attacking
Tai: #8, Box-to-box, Co-captain
Shauna: #6, Defensive
Defense
Lottie: #5, Centerback
?—#4, Centerback
?—#3, left/right Fullback
Laura Lee: #2, left/right Fullback
Goal: Van, #1
option B: 4-4-2
notes: no second striker is mentioned/implied so i find 4-3-3 more likely as their standard line up. this one is completely doable and very standard, however. nat and allie would play more traditionally wide-midfield, playing more box-to-box and covering more ground. they would shoot on goal less.
Forward
Jackie: #9, Striker, Captain
? (possibly Mari)—second striker, forward
Midfield
Nat: #7, Right Winger
Allie: #11, Left Winger
Tai: #8, Box-to-box, Co-captain
Shauna: #6, Defensive
Defense
Lottie: #5, Centerback
?—#4, Centerback
?— #3, left/right Fullback
Laura Lee: #2, left/right Fullback
Goal: Van, #1
other possible options
for a 4-2-3-1 line up, Tai and Mari would basically sub in for each other (not being room on the field for both of them at once) and Shauna would need another defensive midfielder as a partner. everything else would be the same, with the wingers acting as wide-midfielders along with Mari/Tai, and Jackie as striker. this line up is kinda more common in pro football than in highschool soccer as far as I can tell but it’s cool. it’s a variation on 4-4-2, kinda.
another strange possibility is a 3-5-2 lineup, which would require like. three centerbacks, I guess, so Lottie in front of goal imo and Laura Lee and someone else off to her left and right but not on the wings. then for the absolutely stuffed midfield, with Nat and Allie as wide midfielders (they would do some serious cardio in this game, going all the way up and all the way down) and tai/shauna in center with someone/Tai/Shauna off to left and right in center midfield. probably shauna would go in the middle because when I’ve played with this line-up the center-center midfielder never gets as far up the field as the left- and right-center midfielders or wingers, so. and we need Tai and someone to set up and assist for someone/Mari and Jackie. they’d probably only use this lineup if they were losing possession in the midfield, overall losing the game, and they still had a lot of fresh legs.
other things Varsity
Subs: at least 7 other players on the bench, most of which would have been midfielders, one of whom would have had to have been a passable goalie. one was also #18. at least three of them needed to be as good as the rest of the team. the show doesn’t acknowledge any of these players. dear showrunners, it is evident that you do know a soccer team is 18-22 players, since showed that many girls in the pilot. how come we only have 9 of 11 players listed that we need for a varsity starting line-up? you could have at least killed three or four girls in the crash, instead of just Rachel, before specifying she was JV. literally where are the varsity players? did they just…poof?
since Allie’s leg is broken, the lowest number of varsity players (not counting Akilah or the rest of the JV team) that could have boarded the plan is 17. we only have 9 varsity characters listed, including those who died in the crash and the wilderness. so like? what? —Players that would have interacted the most on the field—
A lot of interaction
Tai and Shauna—would have to be constantly communicating, passing to each other, etc. probably not paired up for drills since they're both powerful midfielders, but constant interaction in scrimmages and games. it makes sense why the taishauna friendship is just. wonderful
Lottie and Van—centerback and goal need perhaps more than any other players to be constantly aware of where the other is and what they're doing. probably not paired as much in practices, but definitely in game. so i guess it could factor into why Van is so ready to follow Lottie in the wilderness?
Jackie and Tai or Shauna—Tai and Shauna, like in the pilot during the win at states, are assisting Jackie's goals the most. realistically it's Tai doing it more, but that could feed into the tension that they already have since Tai and Shauna are close and Tai is probably a better candidate for captain than Jackie. definitely jackieshauna are paired together in practice all the time. there's tons of practice scenarios where a striker and center or defensive midfield combo is great. tai and jackie same thing.
Nat and Jackie / Allie and Jackie—especially in a scenario where the wingers are far up the field, Jackie would get passed to from them a lot. probably Nat more, since Allie is shown to have trouble maintaining possession of the ball. Nat's job if she has the ball is to always know if Jackie's open. If Nat's open she should just shoot, unless she's too far up or too far down, then she needs to know where Jackie is. jackienat, anyone? i feel like lottienat is always "i see you" coded by the fandom, but jackienat is like "i don't see you" coded. if that makes sense? like they should see each other but things get in the way like class and prejudice, etc. probabl they're paired together a lot in practice.
Lottie and Laura Lee—yep, they definitely need to communicate. the defense has got to be tight, which means Lottie and LL have to also be constantly aware of each other. 100% they have lots of interaction in practice and during the game.
the entire midfield. so marishauna, taishauna, etc.
Lots during practice, probably not as much in-game
Lottie and Nat OR Laura Lee and Nat—definitely paired up. classic offense-defense, they're going against each other in drills. nat's trying to get past one or both of them to shoot or pass to jackie. in games, especially if nat's on a wide midfield, they might pass a couple times, ESPECIALLY if lottie has a long defensive kick. if lottie or van does that kick, than they're looking for nat or allie first, then other midfielders to recieve it. so definitely lottienat things to think about. even lottienatlee?
all the possible forwards and attacking midfields (jackie, allie, nat, mari, taissa) and van— yes. we're gotta practice our shoots on goal guys. and since we're state-winning varsity we're going to do this outside of practice too. so yes. will rarely if ever interact in game, but everyone's going to run up grinning and try to sink a ball in the net past van and FAIL.
lottie and shauna—they'll always be passing to each other in practice AND in game, but it's less of a total awareness of where the other person. lottie needs to get the ball up the field and out of the danger, and shauna's the closest midfielder to her. shauna's likely to always be covered since they're in line with each other, but they definitely will pass a lot. so lots of lottieshauna, but less dependency. ball is mostly likely to be lost to the other team in this kind of pass, so there's stakes too.
JV
the JV team members that went to Nationals as specified, though there’s literally no consistency: Melissa (#18), Gen (#16), Akilah (#unknown—left winger replacement for Allie, takes #11 going into Nationals), Kristen/Crystal (#14), Rachel (#4 or #18), Britt (#4), Robin (#3 or #13) other headcanons (ages, grades):
My personal headcanons on everyone’s grade when they crash, based on interactions, how well they know each other, maturity level, specified age, etc:
12: Tai, Van, LL, Lottie, Shauna, Jackie, Nat, Misty, Travis
11: Mari, Melissa, Gen
10: Rachel, Akilah, Britt, Robin
9: Allie, Kristen
7: Javi
It’s totally possible Misty is younger, possibly even a sophomore or junior, but I think she’s intended to be a senior, due to the flashback where she was bullied (taking place in junior high I think). Nat and Travis could be juniors, but I doubt it, since she interacts too closely with people we know are seniors because of their age. kristen i just went with vibes, she’s a baby to me. that ends my headcanon, the rest is dubious deduction:
Javi is 13 when they crash, and assuming his birthday has already happened for that school year (simple statistics since they only had 3 or 4 months left of school maximum), he’s in 7th grade. Rachel and Akilah were kinda close but Akilah’s still pretty young/also on JV but talented since she was chosen to replace Allie so I went with 10 for both of them. Melissa and Gen strike me as older than Akilah, so I thought 11. It is totally possible to be in JV while still a junior so. Mari is not as close with the other seniors in the first few episodes/pre-crash, and also seems slightly more immature. She’s also not depicted at the party (or if she is, not with the other girls) making me think she’s a grade younger than them but still cool and good at soccer, totally an upperclassman, so I think she’s a junior. I know she’s listed as a senior in lots of places but I don’t think the writers ever confirmed-confirmed? so she’s a junior in my brain.
I honestly have no concept of where Robin and Britt fit at all so they’re sophomores.
basically everything is extrapolation because we only for a fact that Allie is a freshman and Jackie and Shauna are seniors. they’re only three characters explicitly confirmed to be in those grades, so who even knows?
anyway it’s been a while since i played soccer so please correct me if I got anything egregiously incorrect.