By Chris Parker
McDonald County boys soccer head coach takes over as the girls head coach this spring. It is his second season on the coaching staff for the girls program. He inherits a team coming off a program-best five-win season with eight starters and 15 letter winners returning.
Haikey has seen marked improvement in skill across the roster.
“It is hard to identify which player has improved the most over the past year,” Haikey said. “All our returning players have developed so much as soccer players over the past year. Their attitudes and willingness to improve and make this program successful makes working with them enjoyable. They are setting a standard that the underclassmen instantly recognize, respect, and try to emulate.”
Haikey expects Alexis Abbott (senior forward), Helen Martinez (senior midfielder) and Kadence Elliot (senior) to be team leaders this season.
“All three of these young women have extremely high standards and have worked extremely hard over their careers to grow this program,” Haikey said.
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Juniors Anna Clarkson and Keisha Roponei led the team in goals scored last year and return to their attacking spots. Clarkson led the team with nine goals followed closely by Roponei with seven. Abbott, Eh hser Moo (junior), Mayson Ardemagni (junior) and Mireya Sebastian (junior) will also be a part of the McDonald County attack.
Martinez and Elliot will be joined in the midfield by Natalie Gillming (junior). Isabel Monsalvo (junior) and Yulissa Gomez (junior) will be expected to provide quality and consistency coming off the bench, according to Haikey.
Grace Walthall (junior), Kaidence Willis (junior) and Yarecci Quintero (junior) will be the team’s top defenders. Yareidy Trejo (junior) and Lillian McGlothlin (junior) will also be expected to contribute at defender.
The team will rely heavily on upperclassmen who have a lot of experience playing together.
“The strength will have to be the fact that our juniors and seniors have played three years together,” Haikey said. “The seniors did not have a season their freshman year due to Covid-19 so there is a pretty good understanding of each other as players. They have a lot of varsity match experience together and it should benefit them.”
McDonald County opens the regular season on Mar. 21 at New Covenant.
“Our expectations are to continue to improve as individuals and as a team while also improving upon last year’s record,” Haikey said.