The first match of the 2025 Huskies girls soccer season kicks off tomorrow evening. We won't be running back the Ted Lasso series, but we will offer the occasional update for our fans. Today, a brief season preview, a look ahead at my first season as the big whistle (with a nod to OBX Dave for the nomenclature).
Over the past three seasons, the Lady Huskies have won three district titles, advanced to two state title games, and won it all in 2023. That trophy-lifting team had seven players who went on to compete collegiately, four at the Division I level. We graduated four kids in 2024, including the district player of the year. Solid pedigree, the program.
This season, we return three starters from a team that won the district and lost in the final minute of the regional tournament semifinal. Two of our three best returning players chose not to play high school ball this season to focus on their recruitment (an increasingly common practice among elite female players). The other underwent elbow surgery three weeks ago and is doubtful for the season. We have more freshmen on our Varsity roster than we do seniors. We have one player who is a collegiate-level talent (though a couple of the freshmen have potential), but she's even more talented as a cross-country and track athlete, so her future likely lies there. Ava (2022 State Class 4 POY, Junior defender at William & Mary) and Mia (2023 State Class 4 POY, Junior midfielder at ODU) aren't walking through that door.
I have been very impressed by the kids' work ethic, coachability, and energy in training. We are far better defensively than on the attack, at least right now. Gonna need to coax some 1-0 wins out of the squad. We scrimmage tomorrow against a school from the largest of Virginia's six high school classifications (we're in Class 4), so it will be an uphill battle. I've told the kids that I don't care about the score, but about how they compete.
That'll be our mantra for the first 10 (two scrimmages and eight non-district matches) outings. My goal for the non-league portion of the campaign is to figure out how we best set up to have a chance to win in the district. I think we have a chance to be competitive in the league, and the aforementioned trend of elite players sitting out (or in the case of last season's three best players, graduating early and starting college in January of their high school senior years) means that the district and region could be wide open.
That's a lot more words than I intended to type. I'm kinda excited, if you can't tell. More to come, and I'll leave you with this goal from Tigres' Jacquie Ovalle from the weekend. Check out Jenni Hermoso, the player who gets the assist, at the 1:12 mark. Que golazo! Gonna tell the kids to channel this.
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