2021 Spring Preview: McDonald County Girls Soccer

o-zone-ozone-24

By Chris Parker

McDonald County girls soccer will be young this year after the cancelation of the 2020 season.

“Losing last season was a huge blow to our young players and the rebuilding of this program. Losing an entire season of practices and games hurts in huge ways. We lost a season of player development and technical training, and we also lost a season of teaching players the game and improving their knowledge and understanding of the game,” McDonald County head coach John de la Torre said. “It will be a new beginning. We will be a very young team this year, our upperclassmen will be hungry to get back on the field, and we’ll have a level of excitement to play that we may not have had in years past.”

McDonald County returns just six players with high school soccer experience at any level.

“As I said, this season will be a new beginning for this program, and an opportunity for this year’s team to change the standard of success and culture of the girls soccer program here at MCHS. We as a coaching staff are going in with minds open. We will play players at new positions, we will test our players more physically and mentally than we ever have, and will look to every single one of them to make a difference on this team,” de la Torre said.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL OF THE SPRING SPORTS PREVIEWS

That inexperience could prove to be both a strength and a weakness for the Lady Mustangs.

“This team’s inexperience and the hunger of our returning players is what we think will push us and guide us to success this year. We can take that hunger and inexperience among our players and teach them the game the right way, and play the game we want to play this season,” de la Torre said. “With so much inexperience, and having not played for so long, we will definitely have some growing pains. The biggest improvement, other than on field experience and ability, will be to grow mentally tougher. We will fail and struggle at times this season, and how we handle and cope with those struggles and failures will ultimately define our success this season and future seasons.”

McDonald County opens the season on Mar. 23 at New Covenant.

“(We expect) growth; mental, physical, and technical growth. Wins and losses are great, but having lost a season and being so young, the overall growth of our program is the main goal for this season,” de la Torre said. “17 of the 21 girls on our roster at this time are freshmen and sophomores. We will be extremely young, and the focus this season will be how we can grow and mature this group, to be a solid core for years to come.”

Related Posts

Loading...