Last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
With a new coach and five all-league starters gone, the Douglas girls' soccer team was simply supposed to take a back seat for a season.
What happened instead, was Douglas won 11 of 12 games through the second half of the season and clinched a playoff berth for the 12th consecutive season.
This year, with a solid stable of returnees -including three all-leaguers - and the much-anticipated arrival of a wildly-talented group of underclassmen, Douglas appears to have reloaded without ever having taken that year to rebuild.
"They have a great vibe this year," second-year coach Lorraine Fitzhugh said. "They are very energetic and they are already gelling. It's really a good mix of experience and youth.
"The juniors and sophomores are very strong and those sophomores could be working for some starting positions early on."
Douglas also got a late-summer boost when the team learned its top scorer over the past two seasons, Morgan LeFever (30 goals, 21 assists), would be able to return after suffering a horrendous ankle injury during the spring.
"She is looking extremely strong right now," Fitzhugh said. "She hasn't lost a step. It's been an amazing recovery."
LeFever went down with an injury that shredded several tendons in her ankle while playing with the Nevada Wonders Academy during the spring. The Wonders' trainer said it was one of the worst ankle injuries he'd seen.
At one point, a doctor told her she wouldn't play soccer again.
"I think that made her a little mad," Fitzhugh said. "She decided she would play again, and she just got to work on it. All of her tendons have healed and she has a bone bruise she'll have to work with, but we'll tape it up for her and she'll wear a brace."
LeFever will make the shift back up to forward after spending a majority of last season on defense.
"I didn't have any speed last year," Fitzhugh said. "She had to support us in back. She responded very well. She was very coachable back there and showed flexibility in something she'd never had to do before.
"This year we have the speed, so she'll move back up top."
Douglas' defense will be populated by several juniors and sophomores who were a part of the junior varsity's impressive run last season where the Tiger's didn't allow a single goal through the first half of the year.
Seniors Alicia Sturgess, Allison Andraski and Jessi Chitwood, all returning starters, will lead the group. Junior varsity call-ups Marissa Bertolone-Smith, Kelly D'Amico and Nicole Didero should shore up the defense nicely.
Returning second-team all-leaguers Rachel Van Roy and Delaney Battista will lead the midfielders and will be joined by Dany Heidt, Ally Freitas, Tina Dantin, Megan Emerson and Lisa Christen.
Fitzhugh said if the defense can find several capable starters in the underclass ranks, Sturgess will move up to midfield as an outside runner as well.
Up top, Douglas will mix LeFever in with Michelle Day and Katie Nalder.
One of the most drastic improvements Fitzhugh has seen early on is the team's speed.
"Alicia Sturgess and Tina Dantin were both on the regional championship relay team during the track season," Fitzhugh said. "Tina is very fast and Alicia has just been tearing up the field."
Add to that LeFever, who is one of the faster players in the region, and Fitzhugh has a veritable relay squad of her own.
In fact, Douglas nearly had three members of the regional championship 4x400 squad on the soccer roster this year, but talented returning midfielder Skylar Young will miss the season after battling mononucleosis over the summer.
"Skylar is a tough loss for us, but she is expected to recover fully and run with the cross country team this fall," Fitzhugh said. "She has a dream of getting a track scholarship, so she felt it would be better to pursue cross country this fall."
Douglas also lost Hillary Winans, the region's top goal-keeper, this season as she graduated early and went to Spain as an exchange student.
Replacing her in net will be Jamie Greer, who saw some action last season in net.
"Jamie is a solid junior and should do very well back there," Fitzhugh said.
Fitzhugh said the team will run out of the 4-4-2 formation with a flat-back four on defense, but the players on the field will dictate the tempo.
"I don't have a system that I try to force players into," she said. "My job is to place them well so they can be themselves on the field.
"We'll develop systems off of what we have on the roster. They'll dictate the style they are comfortable with. I'm looking forward to seeing what personality this team develops."
Fitzhugh (13-6-2) is joined on the bench by assistant coach Kelli Day, junior varsity co-coaches Amanda Mikluch and Jessica Burke and managers Samantha Johnson and Tamara Snite.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
