Preseason Look

Play for More . . .

2018 ended disappointingly with a State Quarterfinal loss to eventual state champ, BV Southwest. We want to play for more this season, but we will have to do it without 2 scholar All-America’s in Marge Pigott and Mallory Heying.  We will also be without Madison Janky and current Rockhurst University defender, Alex Moss. Goalkeeping will be all new as we graduated both Allyiah Calvert and Nicole McEnroe.

But we do return more talent than most might realize. Junior Kate Goza and Missouri State signee/All-Stater, Kyli Jackson, are both back at centerback.  Senior captain Meg Ramaekers is back at left back.

We were prepping sophomore Taylor James, even last season, for goalkeeper. We do bring back even more to compete for that starting right back job in letterwinners Avery Higgerson and Trinity Kemp, although both could be attacking the goal instead of defending it. We also return sophomore letterwinner, Skylee Deladurantaye who logged some time at right back last season as well.

We see ourselves very good defensively, but bringing even more to the midfield.  Assa Kante will arrive as one of the most heralded freshmen in the area.  She plays mostly centerback in club, but she should see lots of minutes at the “6” for us.  And with the return of UMKC commit Amanda Hamm, Missouri-State signee, Bella Bryson, and sophomore All-Stater, Grace O’Keefe we should offer up more at midfield than most in the area.

If we run some form of a 3-look up top, we should show a lot more offense than we produced last year. We return left wing Katie Muckerman and right wing Gabi Cox.  We have picked up a nice transfer from BV Northwest in Gabby Weinrich who could play a target 9 or somewhere in the midfield.  And we can say the same thing about junior letterwinner, Maggie Ryan, and she does score goals.

We have 5-6 more extended varsity players from last year who should become an important part of the final mix, but tryouts and early games will announce that.

On the coaching front, Coach Ragsdale is taking over the JV, and we are adding two new coaches to direct our C-team in Eric Ewing and Erin Wrubel.

Coach Ewing is back for year 31, Coach Hammons, 25, BWhite for 14, Coach Ellefson for year 9 and Coach Teahan for year 8.

The schedule should be fun and as tough as ever.  Divine Savior and Kapuan come to town.  We head back to Iowa to play some of the preseason Top 20 teams in the country.  Mo-Kan offers up the large-class state champ in Missouri in Park Hill and 5 of the Top 50 teams in the United States.  Obviously, the EKL will challenge everyone with defending state champ BV Southwest and 4 of the Top 5 schools in the state according to the Preseason Poll.

We just want our girls to play for more this season . . . for one another, for girls who are no longer with us, for their school, for the joy of just playing soccer . . . and yes, for a state title.