Even when a team heads into the year with young, unproven talent, the coach always has the hope that the experience will pay dividends in the future.
It's a huge bonus when that same slate of players turns in a sold year, leaving plenty of time to captalize on it in the future.
Such is the case with the Douglas High School girls' soccer team, which qualified for the playoffs for the 13th consecutive year last year despite a roster largely stocked with underclassmen.
"The juniors and sophomores saw a lot of time last year," Douglas coach Lorraine Fitzhugh said. "It's not a developmental year by any stretch. We're very strong and very deep. It's an exciting time."
Douglas will be looking to replace super goal scorer Morgan LeFever, who is at the University of Nevada this year. She broke the state records for goals in a career (56) and a season (26) last year.
Several players will be called upon to stand up on offense, most notably junior and second-team all-leaguer Ally Freitas.
"Ally is an offensive midfielder that extends the field and she'll see time at forward," Fitzhugh said. "She's one of our strongest returning players."
Senior Tianna Gregory will also see time up top and has what Fitzhugh called a nose for the goal.
"She's been working hard all year and came out very impressive this year," Fitzhugh said.
The team returns a large number of strong defensive players, including starting keeper and second-team all-leaguer Jamie Greer, from a unit that ran a scoreless streak of 298 minutes toward the end of last season.
"We have a lot back on defense," Fitzhugh said. "We won't have to work as hard to find people to plug in back there. We try to build on defense anyway, so this year is a luxury."
Marisa Bertolone and Nicole Didero make up a strong senior tandem on defense.
"Marisa is a strong athlete and Nicole is another one of those kids that you just love to have around," Fitzhugh said.
The Tigers also return second-team all-leaguer Krista Anderson and all-league honorable mention player Lisa Christen.
"Krista should be very strong this year and Lisa is a true utility player," Fitzhugh said. "You can plug her in anywhere."
Michelle Day, Kelly D'Amico and Dany Heidt all filled various roles last season and should be big contributors this year.
Track standout Sarah Hartley came out for soccer this season as well, and is expected to play a large role.
Junior varsity call-ups Sage Lyons, Breanna Norvell, Sam Ensminger, Mackenzie Cauley, CJ Baumgartner and sophomore keeper Christy Harvey are all expected to make a splash this season as well.
New to the program this year is freshman Alex Laing, who may make an immediate impact.
"Players like her and CJ could really make a difference this year," Fitzhugh said. "They've been playing at a high level for a long time and they should match up very well physically against the older kids."
The whole team, in fact, should be better matched physically this season.
"They committed during the offseason and started running two-a-day conditioning sessions," Fitzhugh said. "With that, we included weight lifting every day. We'll continue that throughout the season.
"The results have been awesome. We needed some girth to us and this year we are stronger. We'll be able to match up with the other teams in the league when we are usually smaller."
Douglas brings a 10-game home unbeaten streak into this season and will be looking to push past the first round of the playoffs, where they have been in each of the last two years.
"The girls all get along and everything is positive," Fitzhugh said. "There is a lot of senior leadership and we have a lot of flexibility in terms of where to put people.
"We'll be seeing where they fit best position-wise this weekend and we'll tryout a lot of different things."
Douglas travels to the Galena preseason tournament where it will face Reed " the team that eliminated them from the playoffs in each of the last two seasons " McQueen and North Tahoe.
- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
