Lawrence High’s girl’s soccer season starts next week, but a couple of its players spent their fall and winter months traveling to Kansas City to play for the Legends, a team in the Heartland Soccer Association, and their affiliation with that club took them as far away as Phoenix to sharpen their skills in the offseason.

LHS teammates Kaela Severa, a 17-year-old center-midfielder, and Emma Lumpe, a 15-year-old goalkeeper, usually play for different teams in the Legends program because they are in different age groups. However, the club’s coaches combined their teams for a Division I college showcase tournament in Phoenix last month.

Severa said they played against two of the tougher teams she has ever seen at the showcase.

“That was really hard, but it was a good experience,” she said of going up against a team from Utah and another from California, both of which were ranked among the top 20 in the nation.

“A lot of the girls that play in these showcases are probably going to go on to play in college, a lot of them probably Division I,” Severa said.

“They were huge,” Lumpe said of some of their opposition. “I don’t know what they feed them out there.”

Both girls said the Phoenix tournament was the biggest showcase they had played in. Although the competition was stiff, it allowed them an opportunity to play in front of coaches and scouts from Division I programs such as Princeton, Pepperdine and Arizona State.

Severa said that playing in front of those types of people can be stressful.

“It’s kind of nerve-racking in your first one because there are coaches watching all the time,” she said. “It’s kind of like a tryout.”

But she said the stress is worth it.

“We just get good experience against good competition,” she explained. “You just have to put yourself out there and hope for the best.”

Lumpe, who played in goal every minute of all four games at the showcase, was happy with her performance.

“I thought I did pretty well considering the competition was so good,” she said.

As much as the talented opposition posed a threat, Lumpe said the biggest challenge for the Legends might have been playing with teammates from different age groups for the first time.

“It was kind of frustrating because all of us didn’t know each other and all of us played kind of different styles,” Lumpe said. “But overall it was a good experience. I enjoyed playing with those kids.”

Severa said soccer has become a major part of her life and that was why she plays for the Legends.

“It’s pretty time consuming, but it’s fun,” she said.

Lumpe agreed.

“It pretty much consumes my life,” she said.

The younger Legend hopes the time she invests in soccer will help her reach for personal goals.

“I would like to play D-I college soccer; that would be awesome,” Lumpe said.

Severa is thinking about playing in college as well. “We’ve been in contact with a few schools,” she said. “If it happens, it happens. That’d be great.”