By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In Coach Jan Stahle’s first year back coaching Greenwood boys’ soccer, the youthful Bluejays struggled to a 6-17 overall record, but Stahle was encouraged by his team’s efforts.
“We were very young (last year), and still are, with 12 freshmen on the team,” Stahle said. “We lost a key player in our goalkeeper, Griffin Litherland. He wasn’t able to play keeper until our first district game.
“We did improve every week and the players got used to ‘play it simple, ball on ground, and 1 and 2 touch.”
Stahle previously served a 10-year stint as Greenwood’s coach (1992-2002) and had a lot of success with a career mark of 175-79-16.
He and associate head coach John Markey have their work cut out for them this season with the loss of forward Zach Bailey and defender Kyle Holmes.
Bailey, who earned second-team all-Class 2 District 5 honors, scored 17 goals for the Bluejays, which was more than half of the team’s total last season (28).
Holmes also was named to the all-district second team.
Fortunately, the Bluejays will have Litherland, now a senior, back in goal after missing him for much of 2021.
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Litherland earned first-team all-district honors last season. This past summer, he went to Europe and played with his club team, and he is receiving interest to play at the next level from Missouri State and Washington University.
“Griffin is very strong and directs traffic tremendously,” Stahle said. “He’s not afraid to come off his line and has great fundamentals.”
Greenwood also returns sophomore midfielders Braden Nicholson and Andrew Scott.
Even though the Bluejays will be young, Stahle said that, and their depth, will be the team’s strength, but that scoring will be a challenge. Greenwood scored just 28 goals last season.
“For the small school that we are, we have a nice depth with 12 sophomores,” Stahle said. “They know what type of game we want them to play, and the group has some great leaders.”
Stahle does expect his team to be better than it showed last season.
“We had a few kick-around sessions, (this summer),” Stahle said. “Come (the first official day of practice), we will have some very intense practices and hope to be ready by the first game. If we get reclassified to Class 1, I think we could do very well.”
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Whether or not they are reclassified, the Bluejays have a difficult schedule this season with multiple Class 3 and Class 4 teams on the slate – West Plains, Bolivar, Willard, McDonald County, Monett and Logan-Rogersville among them.
Greenwood will host a jamboree at Cooper Soccer Complex with New Covenant Academy, Marshfield and Logan-Rogersville on Aug. 19 before opening the season in the Lebanon Tournament on Aug. 26.
“We have 25 games (maximum allowed) and I really don’t care about the record as long as we improve and by districts,” Stahle said. “It’s a new season and the goal is that we will be very well molded by then and playing our best soccer of the season.”
